Comments on: Maida’s Little Website

By: Meghan

Meghan — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:55:32 +0000

My mother received several of the series as a child and passed them down to me. Most of her books were lost along the way but I am happy to say I have the complete series now. It took several years of searching Abebooks, Amazon and ebay and quite a bit of money.

By: Terri

Terri — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:50:22 +0000

I recently aquired a tote filled with old books and Maida’s Little Shop was one of the books I received. I have gently read this book to my daughter who enjoyed it greatly as her nightly chapter book. It is a great book!

By: Wilkins-O'Riley Zinn

Wilkins-O'Riley Zinn — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:26:49 +0000

I teach teachers and my primary research is into when learning is fun (engaging, interesting, motivating, and more!). I’ve surveyed hundreds of people over the past two decades and have identified six themes of fun. What does this have to do with Maida? My grandmother had a set of these books and I read all of them many times, although I hadn’t thought of them in years. A month ago, I found a copy of Maida’s Little House at a thrift store and now I’m using a quotation from it in a paper I’ll soon be presenting at a conference. Perhaps the little girl who wondered why school was so boring filed this away until she was old enough to do something about it!

“So you don’t think schools are very interesting?” Buffalo Westabrook went on, bending his eagle glance on Arthur.
“Not any I have ever been to,” Arthur answered promptly.
“Do you think they could be made interesting?” Mr. Westabrook went on.
“I’m not sure they could,” Arthur answered.
But Rosie broke in with an impulsive, “Of course they could.”
“How?” Mr. Westabrook asked with his disturbing brevity.
“By letting you study the things you want in the way you want to study them,” Rosie answered immediately.
“I guess that’s as good an answer as I could get,” Mr. Westabrook admitted. “What would you say,” he went on very slowly after a pause, “if we tried to have such a school as that here?” He continued, apparently unconscious of the excitement which was developing in his hearers. “A school where, as Rosie says, you could study the things you want to study, in the way you want to study them” (pp. 262-263).
• from Inez Haynes Irwin (1921). Maida’s Little House. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

By: Saskia

Saskia — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:36:58 +0000

I have never read these books but would love to. I too look for them in all the dusty second hand bookstores around Boston. Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin, was my grandmother’s aunt and her inspiration to become a writer at a very young age. Phyllis Duganne, my grandmother published her first novel at age 22 and then became a writer for the Saturday Evening Post.

I loved reading your your piece about her. My father has told me many stories.
Thank you,
Saskia

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:15:17 +0000

I’m 24 and received the first five books in the series as a gift from my mother in middle school. She’d seen them in a shop and bought them for me because of the covers and the subject. I’m still trying to make up the rest of the set (still missing four or five), but those first few volumes sparked a lifelong collection of young ladies’ fiction from the ’20s through the ’60s.

By: Sue Westcott

Sue Westcott — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:29:04 +0000

Thank you for this information about the Maida books. My Grandmother was called Maida after the main character! Her Grandmother was reading a book when she was born and asked if her new grandaughter could be named after the little girl in it. My Grandmother was born on 22nd November 1909 and, having checked other websites, it appears that Maida’s Little Shop was first published in 1909. I would love to find a copy produced in 1909, but no doubt they are rare and expensive!!

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:17:07 +0000

Farewell, my native land! At age 62, I am finally on my way to the Adirondacks (from TN), a bucket list item before I heard of bucket lists, inspired by Maida. I unwittingly donated my Maida books to the church library when I was a teen.

By: Rory Wilson

Rory Wilson — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:08:12 +0000

The Maida series was a very important part of my childhood. The first 10 or 12 books were in our home library, and I read them all many times, from age four through pre-teen. During my early childhood, I was abused and terrorized by a sadistic father, who kept me away from other children as many abusive parents do, in order to avoid exposure. He was a teacher and pillar of our local church. The Maida books were the only means I had to know that all fathers were not cruel, and all families not hideously dysfunctional. When I read each book, I became Maida and lived in her world of fun, friendship, and parental love. To say that they helped me grow up sane would not be an exaggeration. I wish I still had the books, but alas! to punish me for speaking about abuse as an adult, my father instructed his executor (my sister) to withhold any household possessions from me when his will was executed. So these beloved books have been lost to me. I have “Maida’s Little Shop” and “Maida’s Little House” on my Kindle (the latter being a somewhat poor scan), and I continue to hope that more titles will become available this way.

By: Judy DUnn

Judy DUnn — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 02:28:13 +0000

I loved these books as a child..became a middle school math teacher,then nursery school president, then Veternarian tech, then realtor, than educator once again in my 60′s !
Still working at 65+!

By: Diane Givens

Diane Givens — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 06:10:56 +0000

My mom had a good portion of the series and I read them as a child. My best memory is the color she wanted her room to be “Sky Blue Pink”. I live in California and often see sunsets where the clouds turn pink while the sky is very blue (Saw one tonight). It always makes me think of the books. My mom passed this last year and my sister & I just went through the books and I brought home the Maida series. What great memories.