Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!@RUTGERS.ARPA:jo@SCRC-STONY-BROOK.ARPA From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:jo@SCRC-STONY-BROOK.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Mrs. Coverlet and the kids Message-ID: <944@topaz.ARPA> Date: Tue, 12-Mar-85 10:24:59 EST Article-I.D.: topaz.944 Posted: Tue Mar 12 10:24:59 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Mar-85 01:26:27 EST Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 28 From: Jonathan Ostrowsky From #93: >> Can anyone identify the titles or author of a series of children's >> books about three siblings, two male and one female, of whom the >> older boy is named Malcolm, and the younger, Theodore, is known as >> "The Toad". The kids have a dowager mentor, Mrs. >> Dextrose-Chesapeake, > The book with the mail-order voodoo kit is _Mrs._Coverlet's_Magicians_ > (I have no idea who the author was). I loved it, about 20 years > ago, but never found the earlier book (the one about the cat). -Neil Faiman I also had the pleasure of reading one of the Mrs. Coverlet books in the early 60s, "While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away." As I recall, the jovial housekeeper (for such was Mrs. C's role; I forget what happened to the kids' parents) had to go off somewhere for the summer. Another older woman was supposed to stay with the kids, but somehow they managed to spend the entire summer alone. Toad and his sister (whose name escapes me) had a generally great time, but Malcolm (he of the "complicated conscience") spent a large portion of the book brooding about the implications of this youthful anarchy. I can't remember the author's name, but it's nice to know that the book I read was part of a series. This was very good stuff.