The Penderwicks

As the Almanac has evolved, frequently I get ideas, directly or indirectly, from the readers of this column. Every year John Schumaker, @MrSchuReads, takes a character from a beloved children’s book, travels with it, and takes photos that he shares on his website. You can see his video of his trip with year on Read, Watch, Connect. As John was tweeting about his forthcoming trip, I asked myself the question, “Who would I want to be on vacation with?” And the answer came immediately. In fact, Jeanne Birdsall’s The Penderwicks takes place in three weeks in August in a perfect vacation spot: Massachusetts’ Berkshire Mountains.

Meet the Penderwicks. As the subtitle states, this is A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy. Having lost their mother to cancer, the four Penderwick sisters work together and support their father, an absent-minded but loving, botanist. Because their vacation reservations on Cape Cod fell through, they take a chance on a cottage in the Berkshires and find that it’s located on the grounds of the Arundel estate, a seemingly magical place with an evil owner and her very attractive son Jeffrey.

All of the sisters have distinct personalities—Rosalind is the caretaker; Skye, math expert; Jane, the writer; and Batty, the youngest who loves her dog Hound. Hound feels equally enthusiastic about Batty. With secret hand signals, the Penderwick code of honor, and ties that bind them together, the girls quickly pull everyone on the estate—including Jeffrey—into their activities and mayhem.

Although their escapades seem innocent enough—interrupting a garden party with a soccer match, for instance—the book provides just enough intrigue, romance, excitement, and adventure to keep readers enthralled with this summer vacation. Those who have read Louisa May Alcott, E. Nesbitt, Eleanor Estes, and Edward Eager will see similarities to beloved books by these masters. But Birdsall has managed to make her family thoroughly modern and believable. With no tricks or flimflam, just good old-fashioned character development and writing, she builds a book that many readers list as one of their favorite of the last decade.

How I wish I could be there with them in Arundel. So I’ll see if the Penderwicks will stuff me into the back of the car with Hound. And in the meantime, I’m going to reread this glorious book and its sequels.

Here’s a passage from The Penderwicks: