The Penderwicks : A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

I am definitely not in the target audience for this book, nor anywhere close to it. That audience would be mainly young girls, and also perhaps mothers of young girls.

Four children (in this case all girls) aged 4 to 12, all intelligent, all talented and likeable, with a professor father who is there if needed, but mostly stays out of the way, a scene-stealing dog, and for location, a vacation cottage on the grounds of a huge estate. Before long the obnoxious woman who owns the estate is established as the villain, and her son as an interesting ally, with other estate staff in important supporting roles. After initial misunderstandings, everyone gets on quite well with each other, except, of course, with the villain and her boyfriend.

As I read, my jaded first impression was that the author was trying too hard, quickly outlining the artsy child (Jane, a writer), the sport-loving rebel tomboy (Skye), the responsible eldest with a crush (Rosalind), and the spoiled, shy baby (Batty). The neighbor boy Jeffrey fills in first as mystery, then opponent, then staunch ally, and exploration and adventures make up much of the action in the early chapters.

Before long, however, I was sucked right into the story, stopped analyzing, and just enjoyed this book as a good read, the kind I don’t often encounter in new authors these days. The writing is quite good, no surprise that the book won a National Book Award.

If you like well-written, entertaining stories, you can’t go wrong with this one.