The Penderwicks
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
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Publication date
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June 2005 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 272 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 56631524 |
| LC Class | PZ7.B51197 Pe 2005 |
| Followed by | The Penderwicks on Gardam Street |
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is a children's novel by Jeanne Birdsall, published by Knopf in 2005. It won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature (United States).
This was Birdsall's first book published and it inaugurated the "Penderwick sisters" series, whose fourth volume (of five planned) was published in 2015. Both A Summer Tale and its sequel The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (Knopf, April 2008) were New York Times Best Sellers.
The novel was inspired by the kind of stories the author read when growing up, The National Book Award citation compares the novel to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and E. Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers. The fictional setting is more modern than Alcott's or Nesbit's, although not clearly contemporary with Birdsall's writing.
The Penderwicks, a family of six, (four sisters, their father, and their dog) get lost on the way to Arundel but find it and their rental cottage with the help of Harry the Tomato Man and Cagney, the estate gardener.
When they get to the cottage, the girls choose their bedrooms, Skye getting a huge white bedroom with two beds, Jane getting the attic, and Rosalind and Batty get two small rooms right next to each other with a closet that has a passage to get to the other room. Then, Skye goes exploring, and meets Cagney personally. They start talking, but then Mrs. Tifton, the owner of Arundel, comes looking for Cagney. Skye hides then overhears Mrs. Tifton telling Cagney that he needs to get rid of the Fimbriata rosebush that his uncle kept alive for 30 years, so Skye tells Cagney that he can move the rosebush to the cottage and he can come over every morning to water it. When Skye leaves, she meets a boy. She almost knocks him unconscious, and then tells him not to go near Mrs. Tifton's gardens and what a horrible person she is but finds out that the boy is Mrs. Tifton's son.
After Rosalind puts Batty to bed, Skye calls Jane and Rosalind to a MOOPS, Meeting Of Older Penderwick Sisters. Batty knows only about a MOPS which is meeting of Penderwick sisters. She tells them what she said to the boy, and Jane is sent to apologize to him the next day. Jane finds out his name is Jeffrey, and becomes friends with him. Meanwhile, at the cottage, Rosalind and Skye are baking cookies for Jeffrey, and Cagney comes over with the Fimbriata. So Rosalind goes to help Cangey, Skye finishes making the cookies, but broils them. When Rosalind comes back inside the house, she sees that Skye ruined the cookies. She accidentally insults Skye, and then Skye yells that she thinks that Jeffrey's a snob, right as he and Jane are walking through the door. Mr. Penderwick sends them on a walk, and then Batty almost gets attacked by a bull. Skye, Jane, and Jeffrey manage to save her, but aren't allowed to tell anyone what happened, because Mr. Penderwick and Rosalind will think Skye and Jane didn't take care of her well. But Batty's butterfly wings get scratched up, so they tell everyone that Batty got stuck in a rosebush. Rosalind fixes them for her, and everyone goes to Jeffrey's house for Churchie (beloved housekeeper and cook)'s gingerbread. Churchie wants Jeffrey to invite the girls to his birthday party but Jeffrey doesn't want them to come. After convincing a reluctant Jeffrey, Churchie brings the girls to choose beautiful dresses. Then they go to the birthday party but it turns out to be a disaster. At the birthday dinner, Mrs. Tifton starts to despise the girls, and Jeffrey finds out that his mother is going to marry Dexter Dupree, a very mean man. Jeffrey also finds out that Dexter is planning to send him off to Pencey Military Academy once he and Mrs. Tifton get married.
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