The Melling Sisters is a Australian children's/young adult series by Robin Klein. The series consists of three books: All In The Blue Unclouded Weather (1991), Dresses of Red and Gold (1992) and The Sky In Silver Lace (1995), and each book is a collection of short stories following the lives of four sisters in a rural town.
The Melling family, consisting of Vivienne, Cathy, Heather and Grace, as well as their somewhat Cloud Cuckoolander parents, Connie and Leighton, live in a rural Australian town of Wilgawa in the late 1940s. The family is very poor, but are able to make ends meet, and are happy despite it.
The stories tend to follow the younger sisters; Vivienne, Cathy and Heather, often joined by their outgoing cousin Isobel, getting into a variety of adventures, learning life lessons, and growing up.
This series contains examples of:
- The '40s: The story is set in the late forties, and World War II is still clearly in memory for all of them. There are a number of cultural references scattered throughout, particularly the variety of celebrities Isobel claims to be related to (particularly Ginger Rodgers).
- The Ace: Grace is considered to be the prettiest, most sophisticated sister, and is emphasised to be intelligent, artistic and sociable.
- Afraid of Blood: Vivienne's fear of blood is noted a few times, from her not joining the Girl Guides because she doesn't have the stomach for first aid, to her almost fainting when stitches are described.
- All Take and No Give: Friendship with Isobel is like this, as she likes to drag her cousins into her schemes, which tends to get them into trouble.
- Alpha Bitch: Marjorie Powell, who, as Cathy notes, everyone wants to be friends with because it's their bets chance of climbing the social ladder, even though Marjorie herself can be extremely unkind. Cathy's narration even describes how Marjorie once threw a beautiful and expensive pen belonging to Cathy into a tree, resulting in Cathy getting in trouble when she had to climb up to get it down, and yet Cathy still wants desperately to be liked and respected by Marjorie.
- An Aesop: Some of the individual stories have their own Aesops, but there are a few overarching lessons:
- Family is the most important thing, something that is emphasised by the fact that regardless of the family's increasingly tough situations, they have one another and that, in the end, brings them all some comfort.
- Life is hard, but there is beauty in it. It's abundantly clear that the Mellings have a tough life, but despite their poverty, they can always find joy in their lively antics, the gems of happiness to be found here and there, and the natural beauty of their world
- Change is inevitable, but it’s okay not to be ready for it. All three younger sisters are afraid of what growing up means, and what their family's worsening financial situation will mean for them, and are distraught at the realisation that their childhood is slipping away. Neither the narrative or any of the characters condemn them for this.
- Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Multiple times, from elegant cousin Rita, who turns out to be a complete bore, to haughty and beautiful Marjorie who turns out to be a liar, to seemingly stuffy Gillian, who ends up being a lot of fun, the Melling sisters learn that appearances are not everything.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed, but it’s evident that Grace and Heather see their little sisters (particularly Cathy) as this.
- Antics-Enabling Wife: Connie Melling is this to Leighton, as she never condemns him for his eccentricities.
- Arcadia: Wilgawa is somewhat Arcadian, as the rural, outback town life seems rather romantic and beautiful.
- Attention Whore: Isobel’s defining trait, as she has a need to be in the spotlight at all times.
- Bait-and-Switch: ‘Lady Muck’ is set up as to be a Break the Haughty situation for Grace, as her debutante dress is repeatedly noted to be much plainer than everyone else’s, however she ends up stealing the show, leaving her little sisters in awe.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Marjorie Powell, who seems kind, but is extremely catty and mean to both Cathy and Vivienne, particularly in the case of 'A Whole Shilling', where Marjorie and her best friend are perfectly willing to let Cathy spend time with them when she has a bag of sweets, but drop her immediately afterwards; and in 'The Best-Looking House In Town', where Majorie repays Vivienne's sincere admiration by pushing her around for very little reason.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Heather has coppery blonde hair, Isobel has black hair, and Cathy and Vivienne are both redheads.
- The Bore: Nervous Nancy Tuckett, whose mother babies her and doesn't let her do anything, Rita, who is immensely talented but only ever wants to talk about herself and clearly hates Wilgawa, and Isobel's school friends, who are simply not as fascinated by Isobel as she would like, are all seen to be very boring people.
- Brutal Honesty: Both Cathy and Heather are given to delivering the truth rather harshly, usually with the intent of squashing Isobel or Vivienne's flights of fancy. Heather, however is far more sarcastic with hers.
- The Bully: Stewart Thurlow, whose primary trait seems to be occasionally appearing to do things such as pelt Cathy with unripe plums, or throw Isobel's bathing cap to a dog.
- Character Development: Most of the girls go through some of this as they get older, with Vivienne slowly coming out of her shell and embracing the real world; Cathy taking pride in her family, despite their poverty; and Heather taking her place as the eldest of the family. Averted with Isobel who learns nothing across the course of the story.
- Chuunibyou: Isobel is convinced, despite being a thirteen-year-old country kid, that she is on the way to being a movie star, and is set on convincing everyone else of this.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Both Connie and Leighton Melling exhibit some Cuckoolander traits. Leighton frequently invents things designed to be helpful, which never work, makes up stories about his time in the war, once designed a treasure hunt for a twelfth birthday party which involves (amongst other things) stealing from a nunnery and has a boundless, childlike energy toward life. Connie meanwhile, is a rather ditzy artist, who rarely ever remembers things she has to do, but often can be found composing poetry, or implementing her questionable artistic visions, such as sticking broken pottery on old records to make doily pressers.
- Cool Big Sis: Vivienne considers Grace, who is a beautiful and talented artist off in the city to be this.
- Compulsive Liar: Isobel constantly lies about her relatives, state of affairs, interactions with people, and everything else. Particularly notable in ‘Beach Belles’ when it’s lampshaded by Vivienne that there was no need for such a ridiculous lie.
- Coming of Age: For Vivienne and Heather (also for Grace, but as Grace doesn’t have a point-of-view story, it’s less notable). Vivienne slowly comes to terms with the harsh reality of the world, and grows a little out of her naivete, Heather takes Grace’s place as the eldest in the family.
- Control Freak: Grace, to some degree, who insists that everything has to go the way she likes, and frequently scolds her family for being 'uncouth.'
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: What Vivienne has to do, considering how little she has.
- The Cutie: It’s hard not to love Vivienne, who is dreamy, sweet, and very kind to everyone.
- Dandere: Painfully shy Nancy Tuckett who is very easily pushed around, and sometimes Vivienne, who is often too shy to stick up for herself.
- A Day in the Limelight: ‘Tyrant’ for Nancy Tuckett, and each book has one of these for Isobel.
- Dad the Veteran: Leighton Melling fought in the first world war, and is very proud of it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Heather’s defining trait, as she often wastes no time in shutting down her younger sisters or cousins with biting sarcasm or brutal honesty.
- Dean Bitterman: Mr Pratlow, whose students are quite literally terrified of him, as he shouts a lot and practices corporal punishment with very little provocation.
- Disappeared Dad: Isobel’s father is not mentioned, and her mother has a boyfriend in the States.
- Drama Queen: Isobel. Isobel. She has her heart set on getting to Hollywood and spends almost every waking minute coming up with increasingly ridiculous ways to keep all eyes on herself.
- Establishing Character Moment: Cathy is doing handstands on the turnstile, showing off, while Heather lectures her snarkily about showing off. Meanwhile, Vivienne is secretly envying Nancy Tuckett’s finery. This interaction shows Cathy's tomboyishness, and tendency to defy Heather's authority; Heather's bossiness and Deadpan Snarker qualities and Vivienne's admiration of all things beautiful, and deep insecurity about her poverty.
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Every Christmas, Leighton makes a terrible plum pudding, which tends to sit around until next year.
- Free-Range Children: The Melling sisters are reasonably free to wander around town. Justified as it’s a small town, they’re preteens/teenagers and it’s the 1940s.
- Fiery Redhead: Cathy, who has red hair, a tomboyish personality, and a hot temper.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: The usual quartet features tomboyish Cathy; sweet, naive Vivienne; wild, would-be-sexy Isobel; and Heather is the oldest and the one who’s supposed to be holding them all together.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The usual quartet
- Choleric: Isobel, who is excessively dramatic, extremely self-centred, almost never listens to anyone else, is extremely extroverted, and is seemingly impossible to embarrass or quash.
- Sanguine: Cathy, who is energetic, usually upbeat, reckless and often hot tempered.
- Melancholic: Heather, who is rather pessimistic, moody, organized and the most sensible of the girls.
- Phlegmatic: Vivienne, who is kind, sensitive, very empathetic, shy, and the diplomat of the girls.
- Grew a Spine: Vivienne, in ‘Bogeyman’, when she is the only one who isn't scared of the 'ghost' and even manages to rub it in at Cathy, Heather and Isobel, who usually tease her for being easily scared.
- Girlish Pigtails: Cathy and Vivienne both wear these, Cathy’s emphasising her tomboyishness , and Vivienne’s, her youthfulness.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Heather would very much like to be normal, but her parents, siblings and cousin are here to jeopardise that.
- Kiddie Kid: Vivienne is ten, but she still believes in magic and fairies, something her sisters find amusing.
- Large Ham: Isobel lives and breathes this trope, as she is extremely dramatic, and feels the need to be constant centre of attention, and thus tries to be as loud as possible. Leighton can be pretty hammy at times too, as he's given to overreaction.
- Meaningful Name: ‘Grace’ means ‘graceful’ which the elegant, beautiful and artistic Grace certainly is.
- Miss Conception: The very sheltered Nancy Tuckett has been told that babies grow on a special tree.
- Mr. Imagination: Vivienne and Isobel, in very different ways. Vivienne’s got a very keen artistic and sensitive spirit, and uses her imagination to escape from the world around her, whereas Isobel’s imagination tends to result in an incredibly heightened sense of her own self-importance.
- Noodle Incident: Mr Henderson’s funeral, about which we hear much, but do not see.
- Only Sane Man: Heather to the usual quartet, Grace to her sisters, as both feel the need to reign in Cathy's impulsivess and uncouthness, Vivienne's imaginative sensitivity, and Isobel's dramatics. Funnily enough, Heather seems to resent Grace considering herself the only sane man, and thus she still often acts up with the intent of frustrating Grace.
- Outdoorsy Gal: Cathy, who would rather be building a treehouse than being a bridesmaid.
- Parents as People: Leighton and Connie are painted as people outside of their daughters, particularly in the 'Lilith's Curse' story, when Cathy and Isobel go through Connie's mementoes and find the letters that Leighton and Connie wrote to one another during the war, before they had children.
- Proper Lady: Grace desperately wants to be seen as this, obsessing over how 'uncouth' everything in Wilgawa is, in her opinion, and attempting to distance herself from her extremely country family.
- Quirky Household: The Mellings are this, with four energetic daughters, given to getting themselves into scrapes, a Cloud Cuckoolander artist for a mother and a eccentric veteran for a father.
- Sensitive Artist: Vivienne is shown to occasionally be quite artistic, helping Connie out with her poems and making her own jewellery, and is deeply sensitive, feeling extreme empathy for everyone she meets, crying very easily, and terrified of change.
- Shrinking Violet: Vivienne, who is afraid of speaking to anyone she doesn't know, and often gets pushed around by her sisters and cousin.
- Single Sex Offspring: Leighton and Connie only have daughters, and the only mentioned cousins are girls too.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Isobel is most certainly this, as she is utterly convinced she is more or less a celebrity, despite being a small-town thirteen-year-old. She's busy trying to convince everyone else of this, too.
- Small Town Boredom: All the girls except Vivienne suffer this from time to time, but it’s particularly noticeable with Grace, who openly states that she finds it a 'poky little town' and despises it's resistance to change, and loves living in the city; and Isobel, who feels her star quality is wasted in Wilgawa. .
- Statuesque Stunner: Grace is noted to be tall and is certainly beautiful, particularly in 'Lady Muck' where Heather notes that she looks like a 'tall, beautiful lily'.
- Tears of Joy: Shed by Connie at almost any provocation, particularly where Grace is concerned, such as the night of the debutante ball and Grace's return from the city.
- Tomboy: Cathy, who loves the outdoors, swears, doesn't like dresses, and whose pastimes involve making a canoe and a treehouse.
- Two-Teacher School: Mrs Owens and Mr Pratlow are the only noted faculty members
- Unishment: In 'Bridesmaid' Cathy is up in a treehouse the morning of cousin Hilary’s wedding, and gets tar in her hair. Vivienne is avoiding chores, and is the first to bring the news…
- Youthful Freckles: All the Melling sisters have freckles, which at least in the case of Vivienne and Heather serve to empasize that they are still children.
