The Penderwicks (2005)

This is the story of four sisters who live with their father and spend the summer renting a summer home in the country. The book recounts their adventures during the summer and the hopes and dreams of the girls as they learn to live without their mother as well as how to deal with growing up. They make friends and have many childhood adventures. There is a tinge and feel of The Secret Garden to it. It was a nice and "quiet" sort of story, not fraught with harrowing twists and turns, but just a "lazy" kind of summer spent having fun.. more of a slice of life story.

My only disappointment was that I picked the story since it was marked as being similar to the series of A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, series marked for similar writing styles and humor, both of which this story has neither (meaning that the writing style and humor are not the same as the aforementioned series). However, I would recommend it greatly for those who like stories such as The Secret Garden. ( )

Ages 9-12

I really, really wanted to love this book, as the cover illustration, the jacket description and the author's motivation all seemed to gel with the kinds of books I loved as a child...but, I just didn't. It seemed a little slow and slightly boring. I will try the second book in the series and see if it isn't more engaging. ( )

What's not to like? A charming throw back to the children's books of my youth. ( )

I enjoyed this little book very much.

The Penderwick family is charming, if a little precious and a little too well behaved, but I would have enjoyed knowing them as a child or having them live in my neighborhood now!

Their friendship with the boy and their help of him to accomplish his goals was refreshing, with just enough misbehaviour/problems to keep it somewhat realistic in terms of children's behaviour.

I look forward to reading the sequels and recommend this book to any parent looking for a good "group read" with their children, any child looking for a pleasant story, and any adult looking for a little escape into the fantasy world of a wonderful childhood. ( )

When the four Penderwick sisters, along with their father and their dog, take a vacation home in the mountains for a few weeks in the summer, they expect the usual summer vacation adventures -- but they get even more fun and adventure than they had bargained for when they meet their neighbors and landlord.

If I had to pick just one word to describe this book, it would be "charming." There's a timeless, classic feel to this story -- not that it's set in nostalgic Days Gone By (there are references to the trappings of modern life, though those things are generally peripheral to the story), but the relationships between the characters, the situations they find themselves in, and the tone and pacing of the story all pay homage to the sort of books that were already dusty and deliciously old-book-scented when I read them as a child.

This time around, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Susan Denaker. She does a fabulous job of bringing the story to life, with different (but not too different) voices for each character, and a reading that manages to be gentle but not sleepy. So, I would highly recommend both the book and the audiobook of this sweet story. ( )