The Penderwicks

Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks is a warm summer story for 9 year olds about four sisters, one big daft dog and a mansion with a very snooty owner.

What happens

The family's usual beach house has been sold. So Mr Penderwick rents a cottage in the mountains for three weeks, sight unseen. Then Hound eats the map. (Batty had hidden her sandwich in it.)

When they do find the place, it's in the grounds of an enormous house called Arundel, all fountains, statues and fancy gardens. It belongs to Mrs Tifton. A man selling tomatoes by the road has already warned them to keep out of her gardens.

So of course Skye goes straight in. On her first afternoon she's hidden in a stone urn by Cagney the gardener, then crashes into a boy in a secret hedge tunnel. She tells him exactly what she thinks of snooty Mrs Tifton. The boy is Jeffrey. Mrs Tifton is his mother. Oops!

Rosalind is twelve and the sensible one, the sister who keeps everyone in line. Skye is eleven, very blunt and teaching herself algebra for fun. Jane is ten and writing her own books about a heroine called Sabrina Starr who rescues things. Batty is four, very shy and never without her butterfly wings.

They bicker constantly. Skye threatens to murder her younger sisters before they've even arrived (she doesn't mean it). But when something matters they call a MOOPS, a Meeting Of Older Penderwick Sisters, and swear on the family honour. Who wouldn't want to be in that club?

It's funny in a gentle, everyday way. Hound is sick on Jane's trainers. Skye is left in charge of the cookies and puts the oven on grill. Their dad slips into Latin whenever he's happy, which is often.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The girls' mum died when Batty was a baby. It's backstory, not something that happens in the story. At bedtime Batty asks Rosalind to tell her how Mummy chose her name, and it's done simply and tenderly. A child who has lost a parent may find that page hard. For most readers it just shows how much the sisters look after each other.

What to read next

If they love a house that's full to bursting, The Lotterys More or Less has two mums, two dads, a grandfather who's new to the place and a houseful of children in the run-up to Christmas.