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

This book's cover immediately caught my eye.  The cover and even the title reminded me of one of the many books I read as a young girl.  After reading the entire book in about two days, it really did bring back fond memories of childhood books like The Moffits.  Does anyone else out there remember reading that one?  I still have my copy.  In fact, I may just have to reread it again.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall really is a just as the title suggests -- a book about four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy.  It's a perfect summer read for girls from ages 9-12 -- although adults would enjoy it, too.  During three weeks of their summer, the Penderwick girls -- Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty -- go to a New England cottage with their father for three weeks.  Those three weeks are full of many adventures, including a run-in with a bull, a fall into a frog pond, a kitchen fire, and more.

While on their adventures, the girls are joined by a young boy whose mother, a snooty, snobby, angry woman, becomes the antagonist throughout the story.

Although this book does not center around one clear conflict, it instead is made up of many different adventures -- one for each chapter.  It is, quite simply, a great story.  Although there is a mention of a computer on three different pages, aside from that, this story could take place any time within the last fifty years.

This would also make a great summer read aloud for parents who want to read to their younger children -- boys or girls.

This is actually the first book in a series, so readers who enjoy this book will have others to pick up as soon as they are done reading.