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About the Author

Jeanne Birdsall was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1951. Before becoming a children's author, she worked as a photographer. Some of her photographs are included in the permanent collections of museums, including the Smithsonian and the Philadelphia Art Museum. She didn't start writing until show more she was forty-one years old. Her first book, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, was published in 2005. Her novels about the Penderwick family have collected several honors, including the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. She also writes picture books for younger children. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Jeanne Birdsall

Associated Works

Hey, Kiddo (2018) — Narrator, some editions — 975 copies
Nancy and Plum (1952) — Introduction, some editions — 211 copies

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Reviews

I didn't like this one quite as much as "The Penderwicks" -- I suppose some of the nostalgic charm has worn off, so it had to work a little harder. It's also lacking some of the suspense of its predecessor. That said, it's still a great book, and anyone who liked the first one will enjoy it.
 
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Byakhee | 58 other reviews | Feb 21, 2024 |
{first of 5 of Penderwicks series; children's, summer holidays, adventure, family, friends}(2005)

Subtitled 'A summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits and a very interesting boy'.

I took a book bullet for this one last year. (My apologies, but I don't remember who fired it - I tend to go straight to the Overdrive websites for my libraries when I come across an interesting book in someone's thread and hunt around hoping I find it, by which time I've forgotten who sent me there. Often, though, it tends to be a few mentions over time which indicates that the book hit the spot with more than one LT friend.)

This was a National Book Award winner and has a gentle ambience but keeps you reading. It took me back to the books I grew up with though this is 21st century America and the classics I read were set in early 20th century Britain. It has that vibe of timeless, innocent summer holidays adventure without being saccharine - the dog running away, the children being chased by a bull or just counting frogs in the lily pond - plus it shows (doesn't tell) the interactions and tight bonds between the protagonists.

And they are: Rosalind, the responsible eldest Penderwick sister at twelve years old (and a half) who will be going into seventh grade after the summer; Skye, the only blonde haired, blue eyed sister, who is eleven and a bit of a maths prodigy;
'Cagney, these four are my pride and joy. The one with blond hair is my second daughter, Skye -'
'Blue Skye, blue eyes,' said Skye, opening wide her blue eyes to demonstrate.
'That's how you can remember which one she is,' said Jane. 'Blue eyes and straight blond hair. The rest of us have identical brown eyes and dark curly hair. People get me and Rosalind mixed up all the time.'
Jane is ten and writes books about her heroine Sabrina Starr for the family to read and she's also a great football (soccer) player. Batty, named after their mum, is four (though she does come across as more intelligible than most four year olds I've met) and the only one who really understands what
big, black, clumsy, lovable Hound Penderwick
is saying. Of course there's their dad, who is a botany professor and always throwing out Latin phrases, and they meet Jeffrey - the mysterious boy at the window - who lives at Arundel. And Arundel itself, a mansion in the Berkshire mountains {for those, like me, who don't know where that is, it's a subrange of the Appalachians located in west Massachusetts/ northwest Connecticut according to Wikipedia; far as I know, Berkshire is an English county} with gardens that Mrs Tifton, the snooty owner (who always mixes up Jane and Skye), wants to win the local garden contest. But the Penderwick family have taken the cottage in the grounds for the summer. And Mrs Tifton doesn't know that Hound is part of the family ...

I enjoyed this book and its ambience. It doesn't seem to have an unputdown-ness to it but I devoured it in a day or so between dentist visits and having family over for dinner. The Penderwick family are close, having lost their mother about four years ago, but the characters are not idealised - you can still see there is friction between the sisters at times. Fortunately they do have the MOOPS (Meetings Of the Older Penderwick Sisters) and MOPS (all four sisters) to enable them to uphold the Penderwick Family Honour. Their dad doesn't interfere with their holiday plans but when he does have to step in, he seems to be a fairly wise parent. And I liked Jeffrey; though an only child, he doesn't come across as spoiled and I was impressed by the way he interacts with Batty, the four year old. I love Hound. He's not Jasper (our dog) but I can see the similarity in thinking.

I really like the illustration that heads each chapter, too - it encapsulates the idea of children enjoying their summer holiday. (It seems to have been used as a cover on many editions of the book, too, but not the one I borrowed.)

https://litsy-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/posts/post_images/2024/02/11/1707677...

Read it. It's a joyful, summery story with a lot of love and friendship to counteract the stresses of everyday life.

(January 2024)
4 stars
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humouress | 189 other reviews | Feb 12, 2024 |
OK, I'm a bit of a sucker for books with naughty kids and quirky and hapless farm animals.
 
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sloth852 | 6 other reviews | Jan 12, 2024 |
I liked this a lot, but I didn't like it as much as #4. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the wedding. And it took me a long time to finish this because the plot had no oomph. We just kind of lazily approached the wedding while hanging out with dogs, chickens, and sheep. But I suppose the plot is not the point of these books so much as spending time with the characters. On that note, I will say I was strangely irritated by each Penderwick having a thing that kind of defines them. When the book kicked off with Lydia's love of dancing it suddenly seemed so pat to me that Lydia = dance, Batty = singing, Jane = books, Skye = science, Ben = movies, Martin = Latin, Jeffrey = music. I guess Rosalind doesn't have a thing, though. Maybe Rosalind's thing is Tommy Geiger.

I'm going negative, but I did enjoy reading this. I made a playlist of the all the song references and it's been fun listening to it and imagining being at Arundel (it just occurred to me that this is almost the same as where Anna and Elsa live in Frozen).

Finally, when it comes to children's books, I try not to ship. I will ship YA characters all day long, but I'm not trying to put that on books for kiddos. Still, I was disappointed that Birdsall pulled an Alcott, even though she didn't exactly, technically, actually go there. It's hard not to compare the Penderwick books to [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642] and I'm sure she's aware of it, so she knew what she was doing and I'm just here to say IMHO she could've made a better choice.
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LibrarianDest | 15 other reviews | Jan 3, 2024 |

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Works
15
Also by
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Members
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Rating
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Reviews
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ISBNs
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