The Penderwicks

This was a totally delightful children's book, complete with a lovely old-fashioned feel. Like many of the children's and YA books floating around the house, I read a description of this one and decided that my crew needed to have it always available to them in case reading inspiration should strike. And like any other book I have waved enticingly under their adorable noses, they have snubbed this book without a second glance. So I had to read it. And I am so very, very glad that I did because it is simply charming. Now I just have to come up with an underhanded and completely sneaky way to get the intended audience to read it too. Even if they don't, I want the sequel!

The Penderwicks are four sisters, a father, and one large, scruffy show more dog. The book opens with the family driving into their rented summer cottage tucked at the back of the estate of the rather snobbish, intolerant Mrs. Tipton and her very lonely son, Jeffrey. The bulk of the novel focuses on the madcap escapades of the girls and Jeffrey as they traipse through the summer, annoying Mrs. Tipton and causing their absent-minded botanist father to emerge from behind his policy of benign neglect. From 12 year old Rosalind's crush on the young gardener to 4 year old Batty's love of wearing butterfly wings and refusal to speak to strangers, from budding writer Jane's tendency towards melodrama to Skye's enmity, competition, and friendship with Jeffrey, this novel has the feel of being the latest entry in the beautiful children's literature of yesteryear.

The conflict here is, of course, Mrs. Tipton's blindness towards what makes the rather sad Jeffrey happiest and her desire to impose her strict and joyless life even on the free-spirited Penderwicks. The plot is more a series of connected scenes than a novel in the strictest sense but in this lighthearted book of adventures, this works. The childrens' characters are all nicely defined and while the adults are more stereotypical, they are by no means the focus of this sweet chronicle of friendship. I highly recommend this book for the young and young at heart, especially those who like a nostalgic feel to their children's literature. show less

Author, Jeanne Birdsall has written a book that brought back memories of all the books I read as a child, and she reminded me of why I love to read today. During the days I read about the Penderwicks I was lost to the world: their adventure became more real and I ended up a stowaway on their summer vacation. This world is inhabited by Mr. Penderwick, his four motherless daughters; each so perfectly different, their heroic dog Hound, a lonely rich boy named Jeffery and his snooty up-tight mother and many more interesting characters. All the details about Arundel—a mansion with its manicured gardens, and the sweet cottage where the family stays for their 3 week vacation, adds to the magic of it all. Yes it’s a children’s book, but show more if you loved Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Pollyanna, and other classics then indulge your inner child and spend sometime with The Penderwicks. I’m giving it 5 stars for the memories. show less

The four Penderwick girls - Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty - spend their summer at a cottage in The Berkshires with their father and trusty dog Hound. They get into gentle scrapes while trying to avoid the mean woman next door, playing with her son, and swooning over the teenage groundskeeper (ok that last one is just Rosalind)

Ugh you 75ers really got me with this one. It was so great!! I could tell that the author took just the best parts of all the children's (especially girls') adventure stories I loved as a kid and made something completely new but deliciously familiar. It feels timeless, with only a mention or two of computers to set it in the late 90s or early 00s. Kids running around and having fun has no time!
All the girls are show more perfect. Their father is perfect (all adults in children's adventure stories are either bumbling idiots or perfect). There are tons of animals. The baby (Batty) is delightful. I loved every second of it. show less

I am probably just echoing what so many people have already written about The Penderwicks when I say it was a delightful, joyful story that made me feel like I was visiting a favorite book from my youth. Although set in today’s world , this book had an old fashioned, warm feeling that it reminded me of reading Little Women, or watching an old Disney favorite, “Summer Magic”.

The four sisters each has their own strong identity and their conversations with each other were hilarious. I was immediately caught up in their lives, in fact, I wanted to be one of them! With a gentle, loving and wise father to guide them, a wonderful dog to watch over them, their lives seemed to be one long summer adventure.

This author as done a great job of show more creating a charming book that appears to be on it‘s way to becoming a children‘s classic. I will definitely be looking forward to spending some time with the Penderwicks in their next book. show less

My six-year-old and I really enjoyed The Penderwicks as a read-aloud bedtime story. Kiddo was constantly talking about the various characters and potential solutions to their problems as though they were our actual friends, which is always fun. The book worked well for us because it's generally optimistic about human beings, establishes real-feeling and nonviolent problems that are solvable within a child's world, treats both girls and boys as interesting people and as friends, and is well-written. Plus it involves bunnies.

I do think it harps on a bit much about the deadness of the Penderwicks' dead mother, in the grand tradition of dead parents in children's literature (I know that's a real experience, but parents and particularly show more mothers have a SHOCKING mortality rate in children's fiction), and also about Rosalind's little crush on Cagney. But I think the dead mother bit will actually be plot-relevant in the second installment of the series, which may make it feel less random as a recurring point of narrative.

Fun! Much-recommended. show less

{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 show more 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 show less

What a delight this was! The Penderwick sisters--Rosalind, twelve; Skye, eleven; Jane, ten; and Batty, four--are off to spend a few weeks of summer in a cabin with their father and their faithful dog, Hound. They meet new friends, have adventures, and get into scrapes. Each of the sisters is wonderfully individualized--never once did I get any two of them mixed up--and they have real-kid interests without feeling Intentionally Topical. The Penderwicks is a modern-day story which is both timeless and the best kind of old-fashioned. A great under-a-tree-on-a-breezy-summer-day book for just about anybody and nothing short of perfect for any readerly girl of about nine or ten.