The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

This is the second book of Birdsall’s five-part The Penderwicks series, following The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy. The 2005 novel introduces Mr. Penderwick, a gentle professor of botany, and his four daughters, the responsible Rosalind, the fiery Skye, the imaginative Jane, and the animal-loving Batty. The story unfolds over the course of the family’s annual summer vacation, “three wonderful weeks at a place called Arundel in the Berkshires” (7). The property of Arundel Hall is idyllically beautiful, but its owner, “the dreadful Mrs. Tifton“ (34), is stern and judgmental of the spirited, quirky sisters. The four girls befriend Mrs. Tifton’s only child, a lonely and musically gifted boy named Jeffrey. He participates in the Penderwicks’ minor shenanigans, and their adventures together eventually give him the courage to convince his mother to let him pursue his passion for the piano at a musical conservatory rather than follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and go to military school. The first installment of the Penderwick Series won the National Book Award and was also chosen as an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.