Status Updates From House of Happy Endings: A M...

I did come away with several bonuses from reading the book. One, I want to go back and enjoy those simple, enchanting stories, two, I would like to know about the rest of her family and what they wrote, did, etc., and three -because there has been mental illness in my family, I recognized certain things throughout the book, that now help me to understand issues that my family experienced, during their bad times.

Ms. Garis was the granddaughter of the author who wrote Uncle Wiggley, and his wife who wrote The Bobbsey Twins and other popular and upbeat children's books of that period. It is sad that these people were such geniuses in children's literature and had horrible mental issues. As often happens, they were taken advantage of by publishers, etc. and would have been very well off in their old age, if not for that.

I am plowing my way through the book. I was looking forward to a cheerful biography, considering the family, and ended up with a very sad, depressing, myopic telling of a woman's life with her famous father, grandmother, and grandfather. I believe the story could have been so much more if she had included more of her life from information from others in her life. I admit I skipped through many parts.

It is 1953, and Leslie is in love with her new home. Her two brothers, 5-month old Buddy and 3-year old Brooks, who follows her around like a puppy dog. Her mother is a dark-haired beauty. Her father, tall and distinguished and also a writer.

Leslie Garis, the granddaughter of Howard Garis, author of Uncle Wiggily and his wife, author of The Bobbsey Twins and hundreds of other books, under pseudonyms. I didn't learn until quite recently that all those series books were usually written by one person with many different names! Their home, in this memoir, is in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a huge beautiful victorian house. Leslie is 5 and has two brothers.