“‘These must be Aunt Claire’s dying gifts.’ ‘She said she wasn’t sick. Besides, she looks perfectly healthy.’ ‘People often look perfectly healthy right before they die.’ ‘Then we could all die.’ Batty climbed into her new wagon. Perhaps it was safer in there. ‘Nobody’s going to die,’ said Rosalind.”

The author creates humor through Jane’s melodramatic suggestion that the presents must be “Aunt Claire’s dying gifts” and through the repetition of the words “healthy” and “die.” Although the scene is comedic, the girls’ dialogue springs from genuine fear; their mother died of cancer, and they are frightened of losing another family member to illness.

“Rosalind stood up so abruptly that her chair fell over with a loud clatter. They were all asking her what was wrong, but she couldn’t explain. She only knew that she couldn’t breathe properly and she had to get outside. She stumbled toward the door, pushing away someone’s hands, and heard Aunt Claire saying that they should let her be.”

This passage’s focus on sound helps to convey Rosalind’s unsettled reaction to the news that her father is going to start dating again. Usually scrupulously polite, Rosalind feels so overwhelmed that her chair falls with a “clatter” —an example of onomatopoeia—and she’s unable to respond to her relatives’ alarmed questions.

“Skye’s side was tidy, with white walls and a plain blue coverlet on the bed. The only decoration was a framed chart showing how to convert from U.S. to metric measurements. Jane’s side was not at all tidy, and lavender, with a flowery coverlet that should have been on the bed but was instead in a heap on the floor.”

The author uses visual imagery and diction to illustrate the contrasts between Skye and Jane’s personalities. For example, the “white” and “blue” of Skye’s side of the room convey a sense of tidiness and calm, while the “lavender” of Jane’s side reflects the fifth-grader’s colorful imagination. The precise adjectives “plain” and “flowery” reinforce the differences between the pragmatic Skye and the theatrical Jane.

“It was a warm, bright September afternoon, gorgeous with color—green grass, blue sky, and red-and-yellow uniforms (and purple-and-white, for anyone who cared about Cameron Hardware)—like a crayon box come to life.”

Throughout the novel, Birdsall employs the narrative technique of free indirect discourse, in which a third-person narrator expresses a character’s thoughts and feelings without explicitly labeling them as the character’s internal monologue. This technique allows the author to convey the personalities, attitudes, and observations of each of the Penderwick sisters while maintaining a consistent, external narrative voice for the whole text. This passage follows Skye’s perspective, utilizing bright visual imagery (“green grass, blue sky, and red-and-yellow uniforms”) and the simile “like a crayon box come to life” to express the sixth-grader’s joyful anticipation before the soccer game.

“Just like that, Skye’s temper was gone, and she didn’t care. For what good was a temper if you couldn’t throw it away when your sister was being kneed in the ribs? She stopped thinking and started running, firecrackers of anger going off in her brain. Like the wind, she ran, and then faster even than that, her feet pounding the earth, her fists clenched, ready to smash in Melissa’s face.”

The metaphor “firecrackers of anger” expresses Skye’s fury towards Melissa, and the simile “[l]ike the wind” emphasizes her speed as she races towards her rival. The figurative language adds to the scene’s suspense. Skye’s bond with Jane matters much more to her than her personal goal of controlling her temper, introducing The Importance of Honesty and Loyalty as a central theme in the text.

“Her essay—Antibiotics as the Ultimate Warriors—was a winner, well written, with just the right amount of science thrown in. She was dying to show it off, but Jane was still writing feverishly, happily lost in Aztec land. Skye would leave her to it.”

Hyperbole is an exaggeration used for dramatic, poetic, or humorous effect. This literary technique frequently features in the Penderwick children’s thoughts and dialogue as a way of expressing their youthful perspectives and enthusiasm. In this example, the hyperbole that Skye was “dying to show [her essay] off” reflects her pride in her work.

“If guilt had a color—say, purple—the Penderwick sisters would have turned so purple that it dripped off them and spread its way through the house, turning everything purple, upstairs and down. It was a terrible moment, and when everyone gathered in Rosalind’s room a little later, they agreed that they had never loved their father more.”

The idea of guilt having a color and the repetition of the word “purple” offer an imaginative way of expressing the powerful guilt that the sisters feel. This passage underscores the novel’s thematic interest in Learning to Love Again After Loss, highlighting the sisters’ opposition to having a stepmother, which motivates their scheme.

“When at the last moment Hound screeched to a halt, the wagon turned over and Batty tumbled safely onto the grass. But in a flash she was up and running, for poor Funty had tumbled out, too, and had kept rolling, and there he went, rolling into the street, and Batty was screaming, and Hound was barking—Then there came the sound of squealing tires, and Batty saw—oh, what joy!—the green car stopping inches from Funty.”

Onomatopoeia, such as “screeched” and “squealing,” contribute to the passage’s frantic, suspenseful mood as Batty narrowly avoids being hit by a car. The author’s use of dashes adds to the tension by stretching out the moments before the revelation that Batty’s stuffed elephant, Funty, is also safe.

“‘We could be separated and starved and put into cold garrets until we’re rescued by rich old gentlemen with Indian manservants.’ Jane had read A Little Princess so many times she’d lost count. Batty, not liking the sound of starvation and cold garrets, hugged Funty even tighter.”

Jane’s fretting that she and her sisters might be “starved and put into cold garrets until [they’re] rescued by rich old gentlemen with Indian manservants” is both an example of hyperbole and an allusion to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel A Little Princess (1905). The reference provides humor and illustrates how Jane’s fascination with fiction has influenced her view of the world. Like Birdsall’s novel, A Little Princess presents moral lessons, such as the importance of kindness and perseverance.

“The sky was a rich cloudless blue, the air still and dry, the maple trees glowing with glorious reds and oranges and yellows, and everywhere on Gardam Street squirrels bustled about with self-importance, burying their nuts in the most unlikely places.”

The tactile imagery of the “dry” air and the vibrant visual imagery of the “rich cloudless blue” of the sky and the maple leaves’ “glorious reds and oranges and yellows” illustrate the change of the seasons from summer to autumn. The idyllic, natural beauty of the sisters’ home in Cameron emphasizes the joy they take in their environment, as demonstrated when the start of fall distracts the children from their worries about their father dating.

“Rosalind stumbled off to her room, badly needing someone or something to punish. And—perfect!—there on her desk were the brownies she’d baked for the Autumn Extravaganza, hidden away from hungry sisters. BAM! BAM! BAM! She smashed the brownies into a million little pieces, then threw open her window and tossed the whole mess out into the night.”

Onomatopoeia, capitalization, punctuation, and repetition combine in “BAM! BAM! BAM!” to show the force and the anger with which Rosalind destroys the brownies. The hyperbole that she reduced the baked goods to “a million little pieces” emphasizes Rosalind’s frustrations with her father and Tommy.

“Rosalind found that she was out of glowers and out of words, too. She’d been an idiot to start this, an idiot to promise Nick, an idiot all around.”

Asyndeton refers to the deliberate omission of a coordinating conjunction between words or phrases. The asyndeton and repetition in the phrase “an idiot to start this, an idiot to promise Nick, an idiot all around” underscore Rosalind’s feelings of embarrassment and self-reproach after her unsuccessful attempt to talk to Tommy about his relationship with Trilby.

“A second date got one perilously close to a third, and then a fourth, and then how long would it be before that terrifying downhill slide to a stepmother?”

Here, Birdsall’s metaphorical language—“that terrifying downhill slide to a stepmother”—emphasizes Rosalind’s opposition to the idea of her father remarrying. The repetition of the phrase “and then” gives the sentence a rhythm that mirrors the spiral of Rosalind's thoughts—fears that signal her arc toward learning how to love again after loss is still in progress.

“Now, of all the pizzas in the world, Batty’s favorite was pineapple. Especially from Antonio’s, where they put on lots of extra pineapple and extra cheese, so that the pieces of pineapple sank down into the cheese, and the cheese got all crispy around the sweet pineapple—oh! Her father started making the mmmmmm sounds that people make when they’re thinking about really special food, and Batty knew then that even if her mission failed, and Rosalind and Jane were not impressed with her, and Daddy got angry—even if all of that happened, she had to have some pineapple pizza.”

Birdsall employs auditory imagery like “mmmmmm sounds” and gustatory imagery like “sweet pineapple” to show how Martin uses the pizza to lure Batty out of hiding. The author’s decision to use run-ons helps to capture the four-year-old’s childlike perspective.

“‘Do you think I’m going crazy?’ ‘No.’ ‘How about now?’ He made a face with his eyes rolling and his nose scrunched up and his mouth wide open in a loony grin, and Batty shrieked with laughter, and then he was tickling her, and she tried to tickle him, and everyone was laughing, and Hound was barking, and the pizza box and napkins were flying everywhere, until they all ran out of breath and flopped happily back into their seats.”

Most of this passage is a single run-on, a stylistic choice that conveys the exuberance of Batty and Martin’s merry antics. This scene with Martin and Batty lightens the story’s mood by providing a break from the unusually subdued and distant posture he’s adopted toward his daughters since he started dating again.

“Then her father said, ‘You want something to tell your sisters about Marianne? How about this: She’s sensible and clever, but eager in everything. Her sorrows and joys can have no moderation.’”

The final two sentences in this excerpt are paraphrased from Jane Austen’s descriptions of Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. The four-year-old Batty doesn’t know that this is an allusion to a classic piece of literature, and a clue that Martin has deceived them about Marianne. Austen’s book serves as a motif of learning to love again after loss because it was one of Martin’s late wife’s favorite novels—one irrevocably tied to his memory of her.

“Gingerly, she shifted his weight until he rested against her shoulder. He snuggled in and made a gurgling noise that she hoped didn’t mean he was throwing up, but when she checked, it seemed to have been a happiness gurgle. So everything was all right thus far, but she still had to get him upstairs without damaging him. Up the steps she crept, holding Ben like a bomb that could go off any second.”

The author uses diction and figurative language to depict Skye’s strong dislike for holding babies. Precise adjectives and verbs like “Gingerly” and “crept” underline the girl’s trepidation, and the simile likening the baby to “a bomb that could go off any second” adds to the scene’s humor.

“They would no longer ask about Marianne, they would ask to meet her. So they did, using sly hints, polite suggestions, and, finally, direct requests. But their father always had excuses. Marianne was too busy. Marianne had a cold. Marianne was in London—that one really drove Rosalind crazy, and made her more determined than ever to meet the woman.”

Anaphora refers to the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of consecutive sentences or phrases. The repetition of “Marianne” at the start of the fourth, fifth, and sixth sentences in this passage conveys the sisters' many requests to meet the mysterious woman. Martin’s increasingly improbable excuses foreshadow the revelation that Marianne is not a real person but rather a character in an Austen novel.

“Skye stood at the window in her bedroom, staring out into the rain. It was a cold rain, perfect for the coldness in her heart. And the coldness in her feet and her hands and everything except her stomach, which instead of feeling cold, felt seasick.”

In literature, authors often use the macrocosm of the weather and the natural world to reflect the microcosm of a character’s inner world. In this passage, the “cold rain” expresses the great fear Skye feels on the night that she’s expected to perform the lead role in the school play. Polysyndeton is the stylistic addition of coordinating conjunctions where none are grammatically necessary, as in the phrase “the coldness in her feet and her hands and everything except her stomach.” The use of polysyndeton and the repetition of the word “coldness” place further emphasis on the girl’s terror.

“‘You two swapped homework because your own assignments bored you. And when Mr. Geballe decided to stage Jane’s play, thus getting half of Wildwood Elementary caught up in your original deceit, it didn’t occur to either of you to tell him—or anyone else—the truth. Is that correct?’ ‘Yes.’ Skye felt as small as a raisin, as small as a crumb that Hound would lick off the floor.”

The similes describing Skye as “as small as a raisin, as small as a crumb that Hound would lick off the floor” express the shame she feels for having deceived her family and her school. The girl’s confession develops one of the novel’s major themes by demonstrating the importance of honesty.

“Wham! Jane crossed the ball past Melissa and directly to Skye, unnoticed Skye, cunning Skye, who in a move worthy of the greatest—a Pelé or a Hamm—danced past a startled defender, raised her arms in triumph, and neatly scored.”

The exclamation point and italics on the onomatopoeia “Wham!” add to the sense of action and excitement as Jane passes the ball to Skye. Repetition and diction in the phrase “Skye, unnoticed Skye, cunning Skye” emphasize the efficacy of her strategy. The allusions to famed soccer stars Pelé and Mia Hamm celebrate Skye’s skills and add to the passage’s triumphant mood.

“See them lean, Rosalind told herself, as time slowed down for her and the remains of her foggy trance started to lift. See Aunt Claire lean into Daddy, and see Iantha lean into him, too. And see him reach out to steady Iantha. See how gently he does it, and see how he looks down at her while he reaches out. And see—Rosalind’s world heaved up and shook itself like Hound after a bath. Now she was awake.”

Birdsall calls attention to the pivotal moment when Rosalind realizes that her father likes Iantha by using the repetition of the word “See” to create anaphora. The simile comparing Rosalind’s world to “Hound after a bath” signals that her opposition to her father dating has been shaken off and replaced by a new understanding. This passage marks a key moment in the theme of learning to love again after loss.

“Iantha was magnificent—goddess-like, Rosalind told Anna later—in a flowing silk dress of a mysterious blue-green, the color of the sea just before sunset. Her hair, too, was stunning, swept up in an elegant twist, and she was wearing a heavy gold necklace with dark red stones.”

Visual imagery about Iantha’s “mysterious blue-green” dress and the “dark red stones” on her necklace captures the sisters’ reaction to the woman’s beautiful appearance. The author’s diction in effusive adjectives like “magnificent,” “goddess-like,” and “stunning” reflects Rosalind’s admiration for Iantha and her certainty that she would be a wonderful addition to the Penderwick family. In addition, these descriptions of Iantha’s beauty foreshadow Martin’s stunned reaction to seeing her. The passage offers another instance of foreshadowing because the bridesmaid dresses the girls wear during Martin and Iantha’s wedding in the epilogue are also “the color of the sea just before sunset.”