The Moffat Museum

The adventures of the Moffat children living in Cranbury, Connecticut in the early twentieth century as they create a museum, participate in their sister's wedding, and try to buy a trolley car.

Publisher Description

The educational role of museums has become a key professional concern. This book addresses the educational role museums play from an international perspective. The contributed essays provide timely reviews of the key themes and case studies provide practical examples of the research. Ideally suited for all museum staff and students of museum studies.

A 1943 Newbery Honor Book Who is Jane Moffat, anyway? She isn't the youngest in the family, and she isn't the oldest-she is always just Jane. How boring. So Jane decides to become a figure of mystery . . . the mysterious "Middle Moffat." But being in the middle is a lot harder than it looks. In between not rescuing stray dogs, and losing and finding best friends, Jane must secretly look after the oldest inhabitant of Cranbury . . . so he can live to be one hundred. Between brushing her hair from her eyes and holding up her stockings, she has to help the girls' basketball team win the championship. And it falls to Jane-the only person in town with enough courage-to stand up to the frightful mechanical wizard, Wallie Bangs. Jane is so busy keeping Cranbury in order that she barely has time to be plain old Jane. Sometimes the middle is the most exciting place of all. . . .

This is the first publication on the American modernist photographer Curtis Moffat (1887-1949), who is known for his dynamic abstract photographs, innovative color still lifes and some of the most glamorous society portraits of the early 20th century. He was also a pivotal figure in modernist interior design and furniture. Living in London throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, in the era of the Bright Young Things, Moffat produced stylish photographic portraits of leading figures in high society, theatre and the arts, including Cecil Beaton, the Sitwells, Nancy Cunard, Lady Diana Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead and Daphne du Maurier. In 2003 and 2007, Moffat's daughter, Penelope Smail, generously donated her father's extensive archive to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This book is drawn from that archive and includes, in addition, digital reconstructions of color images from original tri-carbro process black-and-white negatives. It reveals Moffat's pioneering but hitherto little-known photography in all its depth and beauty.

Newbery Honor Book: “Delightful reading. An hour spent with the Moffats is fun for all ages.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) You’ve never met anyone quite like Rufus Moffat. He gets things done—but he gets them done his way. When he wants to check out library books, Rufus teaches himself to write...even though he doesn't yet know how to read. When food is scarce, he plants some special “Rufus beans” that actually grow . . . despite his digging them up every day to check on them. And Rufus has friends that other people don’t even know exist! He discovers the only invisible piano player in town, has his own personal flying horse for a day, and tours town with the Cardboard Boy, his dearest friend—and enemy. Rufus isn’t just the youngest Moffat, he's also the cleverest, the funniest, and the most unforgettable, in this classic series about a single-parent family in WWI-era Connecticut praised for its “abundant humor” (Horn Book Magazine). “Rufus M. is . . . unbeatable.” —The New Yorker “[The Moffats are] as nice a group as ever pulled together through hard times.” —The New York Times Book Review

A heartwarming, yet quirky, story about a boy called Jerry whose much-loved puppy, Ginger Pye, goes missing. Jerry and his sister begin a desperate hunt for Ginger, who they're convinced has been stolen away by the stranger in the yellow hat. After months of fruitless searching the children are about to give up hope when a chance gust of wind reveals the villain to the children and Ginger Pye is saved. BLA book which has stood the test of time and deals with the special relationship between a boy and his dog in a fun and lively way