Review on The Penderwicks Series by Jeanne Birdsall
I’m a firm believer that this series should be read by everyone from age nine to ninety-nine.
That’s kind of vast, isn’t it?
It is. But this in itself is one of the most brilliant things about Jeanne Birdsall’s captivating books. Here, we truly have a series that nails the C.S. Lewis quote, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally—and often far more—worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”
When I was nine, I discovered the first book in the series, The Penderwicks, on our bookshelf. It had ended up there for good reason: it’s an NY Times bestseller and has won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I was very much prepared to not like it one bit.
But at a recommendation from a friend, I did pick it up and start reading it to my siblings.
Then we discovered that there was a second book, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, which was even better than the first.
And three years later, the third book came out: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, and that was even better than the one before it.
Finally, two years ago in 2015, the fourth book came out. At this point, both of us Nerds were well into high school and had just made our way through the Lord of the Rings. And The Penderwicks in Spring was every bit as good (perhaps even better than) the three books before it.
So, how does this happen? How can a book clearly labelled as being for ages 8-12 still be from the same series that I turn to every time I need to feel at home with a book? (Besides Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, that is.)
By some miracle of the universe, obviously.
Good Points Pro-family!
The series walks us through the life and growth of the Penderwick family. While the Penderwicks we originally meet include only a widower father raising his four young daughters Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty, he remarries in the second book and they welcome in their new mother, an astrophysicist named Iantha, and her adorable son Ben. There is never any resentment of the new mother or her son; rather, Ben is practically engulfed into the Penderwick family. We never witness any drama along the lines of, “Well, your dad says this but my mom says…” etc. Which is incredibly refreshing.
And then in the fourth book, along comes baby Lydia, who is likewise absorbed into the family. They have to restructure their life, but never do they see more children as being a burden. Yes, they drive dingy used minivans and their house starts to resemble an elementary architecture project as they expand it for the growing family. But children are always seen as a gift.
In a world where we see far too much of the opposite mentality, I think that’s pretty amazing. The Characters
Not only are the characters in the series incredibly in-depth and vivid, but they are believable. You feel as though you know them, but more than that, most of us can probably find at least one person resembles one of these characters. You have the Latin-enthusiast father, the perfect (or not-so-perfect) oldest sister, the fiery-tempered sister who loves studying math and black holes, the nerdy, bookish sister, the animal-loving sister, the little brother who loves aliens and rocks…the list could go on and on.
And they are not stagnant. Throughout the course of the books, these characters experience hardships. They go through difficult times that bring them close to disaster, or worse, giving up. But their persistence is what defines them. And they emerge from those difficulties even better than before. They’re Timeless
We know that the books take place sometime within our decade, but there is no true time-stamp on them. They aren’t “trendy” in any way; these characters and some of their situations could have existed any time in the past twenty years. They don’t deal with current events, but rather the dramas within the lives of the Penderwick family and the people with whom they cross paths.
There are very few objectionable points in the books. However, parents will want to know about a few intense/slightly mature points that are prevalent.
Possibly Objectionable Points Jeffrey Tifton
In the first book, the Penderwick girls befriend a boy named Jeffrey while on summer vacation. (No spoilers there, it’s in the title: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy.) Jeffrey has a fantastic, innocent relationship with the girls, but he comes from a difficult past. His mother and father divorced before he was even born. We hear one mention of the fact that his mother, Ms. Tifton, took an old family name after the divorce to keep people from wondering whether or not she’d ever been married. This is the last time we ever wonder about this, and the discrepancy doesn’t come up again. The “Save Daddy Plan” and Deceit The major plot running through the entire second book, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, revolves around the Mr. Penderwick’s sister, Aunt Claire, encouraging Mr. Penderwick to date. His late wife died of cancer when Batty was only a newborn, and he has been alone for four years. It was her wish that he wouldn’t remain alone forever.
(*SPOILERS*) The girls are completely unhappy with this, and they begin conspiring to send their father on dates with terrible women so he’ll give up on the entire plan: the “Save Daddy Plan.” This involves a lot of deceit, which is one of the only objectionable points I can find in the entire series. There is frequent deceit that they use to achieve what they think are good purposes. In the end, they suffer because of this and it leads to a lot of guilty feelings. Romance
There is some really minor romance throughout the books (which, in retrospect, is rather hilarious from an older standpoint). In the first book, Rosalind thinks that she’s fallen completely in love with Ms. Tifton’s gardner, Cagney. She’s twelve and he’s nineteen. It doesn’t work out.
In the second book, we have more Rosalind problems. The Penderwick’s neighbors’ youngest son, Tommy, has an obvious crush on Rosalind, but since Rosalind still thinks that she’s in love with Cagney (who we never hear from again), she makes things pretty awful for him. Tommy starts “dating” a wimpy girl from their school. They're twelve. In the end, he breaks up with her and he and Rosalind end up together.
In the third book, we have Jane problems. On summer vacation, they meet a boy named Dominic who has a lot of hair and rides a skateboard. Jane falls completely in love with him, and he tricks her into letting him kiss her on a stupid dare.
In the fourth book, we have Skye problems and Rosalind problems (again). At this point, Skye and Jeffrey are much older (seventeen), and Jeffrey has developed feelings for Skye. This is a hard point for Skye, because she wants them to be able to stay as innocent friends. Also, Rosalind comes home to visit from college and brings along her new boyfriend: a terribly dull and self-obsessed boy named Oliver who wears a lot of black and studies film.
There is some minor kissing throughout the series, but nothing descriptive. Intensity The fourth book of the series deals with some difficult and sad concepts as Batty tries to come to terms with the fact that her mother supposedly died for her because she refused cancer treatment while pregnant. She goes through a period of depression before finally turning to her family and learning that her mother did not outright sacrifice herself so Batty could live (a point of guilt for Batty); she did sacrifice herself in favor of Batty, but the hope had been that they would be able to treat the cancer once Batty had been born. Sadly, she lost this gamble, but as Mr. Penderwick explains to her, “You must believe me, Batty—if Lizzy had been given the chance to do it again, she’d have made the same decision, taken the same risk, over and over until the end of time. She told me so, the day you were born.”
The Penderwicks series enchanted me when I was only nine years old; we fell completely in love with the books and the characters because they were just so real and amazing.
But now I’m nineteen, and I still pulled The Penderwicks in Spring off my shelf a couple of weeks ago to read my favorite parts. And I don’t think that this is just because I grew up loving Jeanne Birdsall’s world; I really believe that if I’d discovered the books just yesterday in a bookstore, I would still love them as though I was that nine-year-old once again.