The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Encyclopedia
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is the title of Jeanne Birdsall
's debut fictional children's novel awarded with the 2005 National Book Award
. The Penderwicks are made up of a father and four sisters, Batty, Jane, Skye and Rosalind (ages 4–12), who are very different from each other. The story follows the family during their 3-week vacation in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts
, where they stay at a beautiful estate named Arundel. The owner, a strict, overbearing woman, rents out a cottage to them, and the sisters make friends with her neglected, musically talented son Jeffrey.
The novel was inspired by the kind of stories the author read when growing up,. Some have compared the novel to Louisa May Alcott
's Little Women
and E. Nesbit
's The Story of the Treasure Seekers
. The novel, however, takes place in a slightly ambiguous but overall contemporary setting.
A sequel, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, was released in April 2008.
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. She overhears Mrs. Tifton telling Cagney that he needs to get rid the Fimbrata 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. Cagney hides Skye from Mrs. Tifton, but 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 Jeffery, and becomes friends with him. Meanwhile, at the cottage, Rosalind and Skye are baking cookies for Jeffery, and Cagney comes over with the Fimbriata. So Rosalind goes to help Jeffery, 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 Jeffery'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 Jeffery 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 Jeffery's house for Churchie's, the cook, gingerbread. Churchie wants Jeffery to invite the girls to his birthday party but Jeffery doesn't want them to come. Meanwhile Churchie brings the girls to choose beautiful dresses. Then they came to the birthday party but it turns out to be a disaster. At the birthday dinner, Mrs. Tifton starts to despise the girls, and Jeffery finds out that his mother is going to marry Dexter Dupree, a very mean man. Jeffery also finds out that Dexter is planning to send him off to Pencey Military Academy once he and Mrs. Tifton get married.
Over the next few days, many things happen. Skye now likes Jeffery very much, and she, Jane and Jeffery play soccer and archery almost every day. They name their target Dexter Dupree, with a picture of Dexter's smirking face on it, and their soccer ball Pencey Military Academy. Also, Batty finds out that Cagney has rabbits, so she, Cagney, and Rosalind visit them in Cagney's apartment.. Yaz comes out from under the couch when Cagney has parsley, as usual, it's the first time Carla's ever come out when strangers are around, because she likes Batty so much. Rosalind and Batty start to visit the rabbits almost every morning. Sometimes Cagney was at his apartment, but usually he wasn't. Batty would always slip a carrot through the screen door, and then she must latch the door. If she doesn't, Cagney explains, Yaz will run away, get killed by an animal, and then Carla would die of loneliness, since she and Yaz are best friends
All of the Penderwick sisters hate Mrs. Tifton, but Batty is afraid of her. She's never been alone with Mrs. Tifton before, but when Rosalind is too busy to take Batty to see the rabbits, she goes alone. She sees Mrs. Tifton and Dexter there, and accidentally forgets to close the screen door. Batty let's Yaz out, and runs away. Batty tries to find him, but can't so she decides to walk back to her house in Cameron, Massachusetts.
Hound senses Batty is missing, runs away, with all the Penderwick sisters and Jeffery trying to catch him. He catches Yaz, and finds Batty, but right as Batty crosses the street, a car comes by. Jeffery pulls her out of the way, though. The girls tell Mr. Penderwick what happened, and he says that in some cultures, when a person saves another person's life, their souls are linked together. They decide not to tell Jeffery this, though.
One day, when Skye, Jane, and Jeffery are playing soccer together, they accidentally go into the Arundel gardens, while the Garden Club Contest is going on, which Mrs. Tifton desperately wants to win. She gets second place, and is furious. She forbids Jeffery to ever see the Penderwicks again, but when she and Dexter go shopping in Vermont, Skye and Batty go to the Arundel mansion. Jane stays home, though, because she has the flu and Rosalind has to take care of her. Dexter and Mrs. Tifton come home early though, and find Skye and Batty there. She kicks them out, but Skye goes back and listens to Mrs. Tifton lecturing Jeffery to make sure he is okay.. She hears that she is sneaky and sarcastic, which she doesn't mind, but then hears that Rosalind is always following Cagney around like a lovesick puppy, and if she keeps that behavior up, one daysome man will let himself be caught and that will be the end of her wide-eyed innocence. Skye also hears that Mr. Penderwick is a pushover, she thinks Batty has a mental issue because of "her tacky wings and the odd way she stares without speaking", and that Mrs. Penderwick ran away from the family because she got tired of caring for all the girls. Skye loses all of her self control, and comes storming into the room, telling Mrs. Tifton that her mother is dead. She leaves the house, and tells Batty that she is perfect.
That night, Skye tells Rosalind everything that happened, including the part about Rosalind's obsession with Cagney. Rosalind decides to go on a walk, but sees Cagney with another girl, Kathleen, hits her head on a rock, falls into the pond, and Cagney saves her. The next day, she has a huge bump on her head, though. Churchie calls Skye and tells her that Mrs. Tifton and Dexter took Jeffery for an interview at Pencey, The military school and she also delivers Skye a message from Jeffery telling her that it wasn't her fault, though Skye believes it was. That night, Jeffery comes over to the cottage and tells the girls that he is running away. He plans to sleep under Harry's tomato stand, and then stay with Churchie's daughter in Boston. Rosalind invites Jeffery to stay with them for the night, and he accepts.
The next morning, Mrs. Tifton and Dexter come over to the cottage, trying to find Jeffery. Jeffery explains to Mrs. Tifton that he doesn't want to go to Pencey, and she finally listens to him. Even better, She lets him take lessons at the New England Music Conservatory. In the end, the Penderwicks go home, Jeffery and the rabbits and everyone else is happy.
Each chapter tells a third person omniscient, but focuses heavily on the point of view
from each of the Penderwick sisters.
Jeanne Birdsall
Jeanne Birdsall is an American author awarded with the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2005 for her debut novel The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy. She was raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and, while she decided to...
's debut fictional children's novel awarded with the 2005 National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
. The Penderwicks are made up of a father and four sisters, Batty, Jane, Skye and Rosalind (ages 4–12), who are very different from each other. The story follows the family during their 3-week vacation in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, where they stay at a beautiful estate named Arundel. The owner, a strict, overbearing woman, rents out a cottage to them, and the sisters make friends with her neglected, musically talented son Jeffrey.
The novel was inspired by the kind of stories the author read when growing up,. Some have compared the novel to Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
's Little Women
Little Women
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
and E. Nesbit
E. Nesbit
Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
's The Story of the Treasure Seekers
The Story of the Treasure Seekers
The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a novel by E. Nesbit. First published in 1899, it tells the story of Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and Horace Octavius Bastable, and their attempts to assist their widowed father and recover the fortunes of their family; its sequels are the The...
. The novel, however, takes place in a slightly ambiguous but overall contemporary setting.
A sequel, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, was released in April 2008.
Plot summary
The four Penderwick sisters, Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty are going on a summer trip to the Berkshire Mountains with their father, Martin Penderwick, and their dog, Hound. Their mother, Elizabeth Penderwick, died of cancer 4 years prior the story, just a couple of weeks after Batty was born. The girls are all different ages, Rosalind's 12, Skye's 11, Jane's 10, and Batty's 4. They get lost on the way, and eventually find their way to the cottage they rented, with the help of Harry the Tomato Man and Cagney, the gardener for the Arundel gardens. There is someone else who lives in a mansion in Arundel, too, though.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. She overhears Mrs. Tifton telling Cagney that he needs to get rid the Fimbrata 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. Cagney hides Skye from Mrs. Tifton, but 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 Jeffery, and becomes friends with him. Meanwhile, at the cottage, Rosalind and Skye are baking cookies for Jeffery, and Cagney comes over with the Fimbriata. So Rosalind goes to help Jeffery, 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 Jeffery'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 Jeffery 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 Jeffery's house for Churchie's, the cook, gingerbread. Churchie wants Jeffery to invite the girls to his birthday party but Jeffery doesn't want them to come. Meanwhile Churchie brings the girls to choose beautiful dresses. Then they came to the birthday party but it turns out to be a disaster. At the birthday dinner, Mrs. Tifton starts to despise the girls, and Jeffery finds out that his mother is going to marry Dexter Dupree, a very mean man. Jeffery also finds out that Dexter is planning to send him off to Pencey Military Academy once he and Mrs. Tifton get married.
Over the next few days, many things happen. Skye now likes Jeffery very much, and she, Jane and Jeffery play soccer and archery almost every day. They name their target Dexter Dupree, with a picture of Dexter's smirking face on it, and their soccer ball Pencey Military Academy. Also, Batty finds out that Cagney has rabbits, so she, Cagney, and Rosalind visit them in Cagney's apartment.. Yaz comes out from under the couch when Cagney has parsley, as usual, it's the first time Carla's ever come out when strangers are around, because she likes Batty so much. Rosalind and Batty start to visit the rabbits almost every morning. Sometimes Cagney was at his apartment, but usually he wasn't. Batty would always slip a carrot through the screen door, and then she must latch the door. If she doesn't, Cagney explains, Yaz will run away, get killed by an animal, and then Carla would die of loneliness, since she and Yaz are best friends
All of the Penderwick sisters hate Mrs. Tifton, but Batty is afraid of her. She's never been alone with Mrs. Tifton before, but when Rosalind is too busy to take Batty to see the rabbits, she goes alone. She sees Mrs. Tifton and Dexter there, and accidentally forgets to close the screen door. Batty let's Yaz out, and runs away. Batty tries to find him, but can't so she decides to walk back to her house in Cameron, Massachusetts.
Hound senses Batty is missing, runs away, with all the Penderwick sisters and Jeffery trying to catch him. He catches Yaz, and finds Batty, but right as Batty crosses the street, a car comes by. Jeffery pulls her out of the way, though. The girls tell Mr. Penderwick what happened, and he says that in some cultures, when a person saves another person's life, their souls are linked together. They decide not to tell Jeffery this, though.
One day, when Skye, Jane, and Jeffery are playing soccer together, they accidentally go into the Arundel gardens, while the Garden Club Contest is going on, which Mrs. Tifton desperately wants to win. She gets second place, and is furious. She forbids Jeffery to ever see the Penderwicks again, but when she and Dexter go shopping in Vermont, Skye and Batty go to the Arundel mansion. Jane stays home, though, because she has the flu and Rosalind has to take care of her. Dexter and Mrs. Tifton come home early though, and find Skye and Batty there. She kicks them out, but Skye goes back and listens to Mrs. Tifton lecturing Jeffery to make sure he is okay.. She hears that she is sneaky and sarcastic, which she doesn't mind, but then hears that Rosalind is always following Cagney around like a lovesick puppy, and if she keeps that behavior up, one daysome man will let himself be caught and that will be the end of her wide-eyed innocence. Skye also hears that Mr. Penderwick is a pushover, she thinks Batty has a mental issue because of "her tacky wings and the odd way she stares without speaking", and that Mrs. Penderwick ran away from the family because she got tired of caring for all the girls. Skye loses all of her self control, and comes storming into the room, telling Mrs. Tifton that her mother is dead. She leaves the house, and tells Batty that she is perfect.
That night, Skye tells Rosalind everything that happened, including the part about Rosalind's obsession with Cagney. Rosalind decides to go on a walk, but sees Cagney with another girl, Kathleen, hits her head on a rock, falls into the pond, and Cagney saves her. The next day, she has a huge bump on her head, though. Churchie calls Skye and tells her that Mrs. Tifton and Dexter took Jeffery for an interview at Pencey, The military school and she also delivers Skye a message from Jeffery telling her that it wasn't her fault, though Skye believes it was. That night, Jeffery comes over to the cottage and tells the girls that he is running away. He plans to sleep under Harry's tomato stand, and then stay with Churchie's daughter in Boston. Rosalind invites Jeffery to stay with them for the night, and he accepts.
The next morning, Mrs. Tifton and Dexter come over to the cottage, trying to find Jeffery. Jeffery explains to Mrs. Tifton that he doesn't want to go to Pencey, and she finally listens to him. Even better, She lets him take lessons at the New England Music Conservatory. In the end, the Penderwicks go home, Jeffery and the rabbits and everyone else is happy.
Characters
Main article: List of characters in The Penderwicks seriesEach chapter tells a third person omniscient, but focuses heavily on the point of view
Point of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
from each of the Penderwick sisters.