The Penderwicks at Point Mouette

The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall. Read by Susan Denaker. The Penderwicks appears now on just about every middle grade summer reading list I see, and no wonder. Birdsall has mastered the quiet family adventure novel. There might not be spies or time travel or indeed anything that might not actually happen, yet it never seems slow or boring. This is the third entry in the series, after a second novel that looked rather sadly like it might be tying up the whole series. In this novel, newly married Daddy is off on a honeymoon with his bride and her two-year-old (too small to be left behind, honeymoon or not). Rosalind, the eldest, is going on a vacation of her own with friends in New Jersey, leaving a very nervous Skye as the Oldest Available Penderwick, in charge of eleven-year-old Jane, five-year-old Batty, and Hound, for their two-week vacation in an ocean-side cottage at Point Mouette in Maine. If the evil Mrs. T-D allows it, their friend Jeffrey from the first novel will also be joining them. Will Skye be able to handle the responsibility of being OAP? Will Jane get past her writer’s block? Will Batty blow up, and what might cause it? Who does the nice musician who lives next door remind them of? Although accompanied by Aunt Claire, the girls are largely running things themselves as Aunt Claire sprains her ankle early on. Each character is lovingly depicted, each so different that you can tell which character is talking just by the word choice. Susan Denaker’s slightly old-fashioned narration is just right. This was a book that I longed to have more time to listen to and yet was disappointed when it ended. I might expect more people to enjoy children’s literature than actually do, but this feels like a book that everyone from kindergarten-age on up would enjoy reading together.