Who's an adult woman who requested the Maryellen and Melody books from her local library? that's meeeee (but also, seemed like a glaring omission given they had their mystery books but not the main line). As a consequence of that, the editions they bought are the current abridged ones with added illustrations. When they initially debuted in 2015 and 2016, these were more like middle-grade chapter books ala the Nanaea ones, but last year they decided to rerelease Nanaea, Maryellen, and Melody with interior illustrations like the classic historical series from before. I really appreciate the return of the family & friends pictures in the beginning, along with illustrations throughout. They're maybe more photo-realistic than classic ones, but that's more a matter of art style preference.

With that meta information, I'm curious as to what got shuffled around (wikia has detail on specifics ) but it does feel pretty cohesive. Maryellen is a middle child in a family of six, and desperate to stand out and be taken seriously instead of being one of the little kids. Pretty low stakes- there's a mention of the cold war in class, but otherwise, not much to worry about in 1950s Florida for a 9 year old (and if I'm allowed more meta thoughts, maybe that explains a lot of baby boomer attitude? Not as much to persevere through here).

The holiday sequence was cut from the abridged book, so I wonder if it got added to [b:Maryellen: Taking Off|45042262|Maryellen Taking Off|Valerie Tripp|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555611516l/45042262._SX50_.jpg|45367729] or if it got cut period... ( )