THE MAIDA WESTABROOK SERIES
By INEZ HAYNES IRWIN
Notes
Titles
Poor little rich girl Maida is the sickly, daughter of robber baron Jerome "Buffalo" Westabrook. Listless and depressed after surgery to correct her lameness, Maida becomes more and more withdrawn. Alarmed, her doctor tells her father that he'd better find some way to perk her up before it's too late: "You've got to find something that will take up her mind, Jerome," Dr. Pierce said, lowering his voice, "and you've got to be quick about it. Just what Greinschmidt feared has come -- that languor -- that lack of interest in everything. You've got to find something for her to do."
A passing dime store inexplicably catches Maida's fancy ("Oh, Granny.... I saw the cunningest little shop. I think I'd rather tend shop than do anything else in the world.") and her father buys it for her, installing Maida and elderly servant "Granny" in the little apartment above the store, under the condition that Maida must run the shop without assistance and without letting anyone know that she's his daughter.
Predictably, the shopkeeper's life agrees with Maida, and she soon makes friends with all of the children in the neighborhood.
Webpages about the Maida series:
MAIDA'S LITTLE SHOP -- "In a darling little shop of her own Maida makes many friends with the schoolchildren who buy her fascinating wares"* -- Frontispiece by Gertrude Huebsch. 1909. 1910. 1929. 1931. B.W. Huebsch. Viking Press. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE HOUSE -- "All of her friends spend a happy summer in Maida's perfect little house that has everything a child could wish for." frontispiece by Gertrude Huebsch. 1921. B.W. Huebsch. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE SCHOOL -- "Three delightful grownups come to visit and the children study many subjects without knowing that they are really "going to school"* -- 1926. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE ISLAND -- "Great is the joy of the Big Eight when Maida's father takes them for a vacation to Spectacles, where exploring the island provides endless fun and many thrilling adventures."* -- 1939. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE CAMP -- "High in the Adirondacks the four boys and four girls of the Big Eight spend a glorious month of fun and discovery."*-- Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE VILLAGE -- 1942. Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE HOUSEBOAT -- 1943. Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE THEATER -- 1946. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE CABINS -- 1947. Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE ZOO -- 1949. Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE LIGHTHOUSE -- 1951. Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE HOSPITAL -- 1952. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE FARM -- 1953. Grosset & Dunlap
MAIDA'S LITTLE HOUSE PARTY -- 1954, Grosset & Dunlap.
MAIDA'S LITTLE TREASURE HUNT -- 1955. Grosset & Dunlap.
Source:
Grosset & Dunlap Advertisements
Maida's Little Shop
WorldCat Holdings