always coming by to pester the family with questions and inspections about their home. Once, Janey gets so annoyed that she pranks and scares away one of the Murdocks. Finally, the house does sell, and the Moffats move to a little house with a long front yard and a tiny backyard. The Moffats' new house turns out to have a girl Janey's age right next door. The girl, Nancy Stokes, is friendly and tells Jane Moffat that they might turn out to be best friends one day. In the end, "Estes celebrates variety as the source of pleasure and growth." Reception The Moffats was quite well received when it appeared. A reviewer for Horn Book Magazine wrote, "this is a merry book with abundant humor in story and pictures. Some of it surely comes from the author's backward look at her own childhood." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review for "books of remarkable merit", saying, "the children are real and individuals, the things that happen to them -- and that they happen to -- are fun to read about." It goes on to recommend it to fans of the popular Five Little Peppers series. Although times have changed, the book still gets good reviews. In her 1995 book Children's Books and Their Creators, children's literature expert Anita Silvey says, "Although the events are commonplace, Estes perfectly captures children's observations, logic, and speech patterns in prose notable for its immediacy and insight... The author's clear-eyed, original view of childhood shines through all of her work, particularly her classic books about the Moffat family." Series The Moffats, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1941, ); The Middle Moffat, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1942, ; 1943 Newbery Honor book This book focuses on Janey, who decides to call herself 'The Middle Moffat' to feel more special. Rufus M., Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943, ; 1944 Newbury Honor book Rufus does everything he can to help his family deal with problems brought on by World War I. The Moffat Museum, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1983, . Things are changing in the Moffat family, and Janey has the clever idea of making a museum to hold special items from their lives. NOTE: The first three novels were illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. The Moffat Museum was illustrated by Estes. Formats and editions The Moffats is available on CD, Audiobook and cassette from Full Cast Audio; in Braille