“The Penderwicks on Gardam Street” by
Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 9780375840906, $15.99, 320
pages, ages 9 to 12)
This couldn’t have come soon enough: the Penderwick girls are back! In this
upcoming sequel to the National Book Award-winning novel
The Penderwicks,
the four brave, clever, imaginative, and true-hearted Penderwick sisters,
fresh from their summer of adventure, dive back into school, homework,
soccer practice, and life at home on Gardam Street. And as always, they
continue to defend the famous Penderwick Family Honor!
The four sisters, their widower father, and their loyal dog Hound have new
neighbors and a whole new batch of exciting worries. Batty, the youngest,
becomes fast friends with the new baby next door, but the two are haunted by
a mysterious lurking figure they call the Bug Man.
Middle sisters Skye and Jane hatch a seemingly innocent plot that soon goes
rotten. After they trade homework assignments that so romantic Jane can pen
an Aztec play for her practical sister, the worst and best of all
possibilities quickly collide into one: the play gets picked for Sixth Grade
Performance Night (yay Jane!), but it’s logical, un-theatrical Skye who will
have to carry on the charade and perform it in front of Daddy, the school,
and everyone (boo, hiss!).
All the while, oldest sister Rosalind finds herself caught in the cords of
love. While she steadfastly ignores Tommy the Devoted Boy Next Door (who can
date whoever he likes, she doesn’t care!), her gentlemen father is being
pushed to date again by her usually perfect Aunt Clare. The situation is
intolerable! Dating could lead to marriage, and marriage is a disastrous
leap so big it belies the “step” in “stepmother,” which really would be the
End of the Penderwicks as We Know Them. ’Tis a consummation devoutly to be
avoided, Rosalind thinks, whether by hook or by crook.
The themes knotting all these plots together are true and noble ones:
honesty and deceit. Sky and Jane eventually realize (after Jane steals back
the show) that they have to come clean about their playful ruse. Rosy
finally admits to being smitten with Tommy and admits to her covert efforts
to save Daddy from himself—and from the dangers of dating! Mr. Pen even has
a confession of his own: his girlfriend Marianne, she who he describes quite
beautifully as “sensible and clever, but eager in everything,” well, she’s
more than a little fictional. And Batty? Well, honest little Batty may not
have been making her Bug Man up.
Rest assured that by book’s end, Birdsall has tied up all these unraveled
threads, and once again, the Penderwick girls are in complete possession of
their senses and of their remarkable family honor.
Review by
Mark
David Bradshaw, March
19, 2008
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