The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
by Jeanne Birdsall
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeanne BirdsallBrand: Aladdin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-13
ISBN: 0440420474
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Yearling
Book Reviews of The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Book Review: : )
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this book to my young nieces (aged 5 and 8) this past month. They liked it very much, and are eagerly waiting for the sequel. (Alas, they'll have to keep waiting, I like to space related books out a little.)
This is, in many ways, a very consciously old-fashioned book, from the cover (a bad choice there, but you shouldn't judge books by them) to the narration to their landlady's attitudes (but then, she may be compensating for running off and getting pregnant as a teenager by being strictly old-fashioned and proper now that she's back home.) Like other reviewers, I was surprised to see a computer in it - I'd just kinda assumed this book was set at least a few decades ago!
Several people have mentioned that they find the characters unrealistic. This is a tough issue. I will agree that the grown-ups seem to be pretty two-dimensional... but then, you don't see much of them, and only ever through the eyes of the children. They're not likely to think too deeply about the adults around them. As for the kids...
Jeffrey, Skye, and Jane seem to be very real people to me. Jane is a little florid in her speech, but we've all known the occasional child like that. Think of Anne Shirley!
Batty was a little advanced in her speech... but then, she lives with a highly educated father and three intelligent sisters who are much older than she is. It's not unreasonable for a four year old to speak as well as she does, especially under those circumstances, and she certainly *acts* like a four year old does.
No, the only character who struck me as unrealistic was the oldest girl, Rosalind. When she's acting her age (12), I don't have this problem. Her crush on an 18 year old boy? Well, girls that age will do that sort of thing, and feel stupid about it too.
The problem was that she was much too... well, responsible. It's not unusual for twelve year old children to be mature and responsible when they have to take care of a younger sibling. And it's not criminal or bad to expect a child that age to help take care of a younger sibling either, especially when you're a single parent. However, it seemed that Rosalind spent more time with her youngest sister than their father did (for that matter, Dead Mom showed up in the book more often than he did), and that she was determined to be the girl's mom. She put her sister to bed every night! What's more, it's hard to remember that she's only one and two years older than the other two girls. THEY act like kids, so why was Rosalind the only one tasked with the role of Replacement Mom?
It just seemed like she was the only one burdened with anything at all. And while it's not unreasonable for older kids to help out younger siblings, it IS unreasonable for, out of three children almost the same age, one to have all the chores and responsibility and the others to mostly get off scot-free.
Off the subject of the characters, I will agree that nothing particularly scary happens in the book. The big conflict is that their friend has to learn to talk to his mother. Some people find this a flaw. Reading to two children who get upset when anything remotely scary appears in a book (I just plow ahead anyway, there's not much we can do about that) I find it a relief. A book where nobody will, even once, object to anything! Yay! It's interesting, but on a more even keel than, say, Harry Potter (our last book).
Really, the only problem I had with this book, other than poor Rosalind, was the narration. The author simply tried too hard. It was never enough to just tell us what happened, instead she had to interject that "years later" the girls "argued" about it, and stuff like that. I think she was going for more of that old-fashioned effect, but she overshot and it just got annoying.
One Amazon-specific comment. Another reviewer went on a rant about how this book is evil and promotes feminism at the expense of... something. Quite aside from the fact that I find this person's stated views to be abhorrent, I completely disagree with their assessment.
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