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Book Review: The Penderwicks
Sep. 13th, 2011 03:36 pmRead a very nice book today: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and One Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall, a children's book about four sisters and their summer holiday in a guest cottage in the enormous garden behind a mansion. It was published in 2005, but feels old-fashioned in the best sense: strong sibling relationships, lots of adventure, a formula that I think was much more popular decades ago.
And no cell phones or internet, although one of the characters does type her book up on her father's computer. (She's a budding writer, and occasionally narrates her life in the voice of her alter ego/heroine, Sabrina Starr. She is awesome.) The Stargirl books are devoid of cell phones and internet, too - although I think maybe they're set in the eighties? Though maybe I just thought that when I read the first one, because of the lack of modern electronics.
I wonder if this bothers young readers today? Obviously in my time it didn't stop me from adoring Stargirl, but then I wasn't a very wired teenager; I didn't have a cell phone till I went to college. Perhaps they just think, as I thought with Stargirl, that books like this are something in the way of a period piece.
But this is a tangent. The eponymous Penderwicks are well-sketched if not deep; the aforementioned writer, Jane, was naturally my favorite, but I liked them all. The littlest sister, who goes by the delightful nickname Batty, reminded me of Mei from My Neighbor Totoro. They're both so very four. And the villains I thought were well-done: properly villainous, but not inhumanly so.
And! There are two sequels! I'm quite pleased.
And no cell phones or internet, although one of the characters does type her book up on her father's computer. (She's a budding writer, and occasionally narrates her life in the voice of her alter ego/heroine, Sabrina Starr. She is awesome.) The Stargirl books are devoid of cell phones and internet, too - although I think maybe they're set in the eighties? Though maybe I just thought that when I read the first one, because of the lack of modern electronics.
I wonder if this bothers young readers today? Obviously in my time it didn't stop me from adoring Stargirl, but then I wasn't a very wired teenager; I didn't have a cell phone till I went to college. Perhaps they just think, as I thought with Stargirl, that books like this are something in the way of a period piece.
But this is a tangent. The eponymous Penderwicks are well-sketched if not deep; the aforementioned writer, Jane, was naturally my favorite, but I liked them all. The littlest sister, who goes by the delightful nickname Batty, reminded me of Mei from My Neighbor Totoro. They're both so very four. And the villains I thought were well-done: properly villainous, but not inhumanly so.
And! There are two sequels! I'm quite pleased.
