The Penderwicks at Point Mouette

by Jeanne Birdsall Narrated by Susan Denaker

Overview

With over one million copies sold, this series of modern classics about the charming Penderwick family from National Book Award winner and New York Times bestseller Jeanne Birdsall is perfect for fans of Noel Streatfeild and Edward Eager.

When summer comes around, it's off to the beach for Rosalind . . . and off to Maine with Aunt Claire for the rest of the Penderwick girls, as well as their old friend, Jeffrey.

That leaves Skye as OAP (oldest available Penderwick)-a terrifying notion for all, but for Skye especially. Things look good as they settle into their cozy cottage, with a rocky shore, enthusiastic seagulls, a just-right corner store, and a charming next-door neighbor.  But can Skye hold it together long enough to figure out Rosalind's directions about not letting Batty explode?  Will Jane's Love Survey come to a tragic conclusion after she meets the alluring Dominic? Is Batty-contrary to all accepted wisdom-the only Penderwick capable of carrying a tune?  And will Jeffrey be able to keep peace between the girls . . . these girls who are his second, and most heartfelt, family?

It's a rollicking ride as the Penderwicks continue their unforgettable adventures in a story filled with laughs and joyful tears!

Editorial Reviews

Mary Quattlebaum

This jolly tale of sibling support and shenanigans ranks with the classics of family life—Little Women, Five Little Peppers and How They Grew—and with Hilary McKay's witty contemporary Casson Family series.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

The Penderwick sisters' third adventure brings them back in full entertaining force, despite the absence of their father, who is honeymooning in England, and Rosalind, who's vacationing with a friend in New Jersey. Birdsall fills the gaps in the family ranks with several new characters that the three remaining sisters meet while on a seaside Maine vacation with good-natured Aunt Claire and their beloved friend, Jeffrey. Friendly next-door neighbor Alec, an accomplished musician, takes musical prodigy Jeffrey under his wing, and the children also meet two siblings who are visiting their innkeeper grandparents: Dominic becomes the amusingly ill-fated love interest of aspiring romance writer Jane, and Mercedes is a suitably feisty friend for irrepressible Batty. With Rosalind away, Skye agonizes over her role as OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick), fretting that she won't be able "to keep Batty alive and undamaged for two weeks." Balancing the novel's comedy is an affecting, neatly crafted subplot that builds up to the emotionally charged revelation involving Jeffrey. From start to finish, this is a summer holiday to savor. Ages 8–12. (May)

From the Publisher

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2011:
"The Penderwick sisters' third adventure brings them back in full entertaining force...From start to finish, this is a summer holiday to savor."

Starred review, Booklist, May 15, 2011:
"Drawing readers right into the family, [Birdsall] enlivens the everyday matters and endows her characters with so much individuality it’s as though she’s erased the word generic from the dictionary."


From the Hardcover edition.

Children's Literature - Jeanne K. Pettenati J.D.

The adventures of the four Penderwick sisters are the perfect antidote to vampires, unfortunate events, and the gloom and doom prevalent in children's literature today. On holiday in a cottage on the Maine coast, the sisters face everyday ups and downs as well a serious life circumstance concerning their best friend, Jeffrey. Throughout the entertaining story, the characters come to life as distinct individuals. Readers will connect with their feelings, impulses and actions. Although several minor characters are difficult human beings (which certainly brings realism into the plot), the main characters are respectful and appealing. They may stumble or get their feelings hurt, but learn to work successfully through such growing pains. The sisters and Jeffrey are children that parents would want their daughters and sons to emulate. The plot is wholesome and evokes the stories written for children in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The book, which is the third in a series about the Penderwick sisters, is one you definitely want on your child's bookshelf. Reviewer: Jeanne K. Pettenati, J.D.

School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—The Penderwicks are all going on separate two-week vacations. Daddy will be on his honeymoon with Iantha and Ben, the sisters' new stepmother and stepbrother. Rosalind, the eldest, is going to New Jersey with her friend Anna, while the other sisters (Skye, Jane, and Batty) are going to Maine with Aunt Claire and their friend, Jeffrey. Skye is left with the dreaded duties of being the OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick). To make matters worse, their vacation gets off to a rocky start. Skye loses Rosalind's instruction sheet for taking care of Batty. Jane gets distracted by Dominic, and almost breaks her nose. Aunt Claire gets tripped by Hoover, the neighbor's dog, and has to be on crutches. Can the Penderwicks survive their vacation and prove to Rosalind that they can take care of themselves? Narrator Susan Denaker does a great job of bringing Jeanne Birdsall's third book (2011) in the series to life. She employs a distinct voice for each character, perfectly capturing their ages, personalities, and changes in mood. Those who are familiar with the first two titles—The Penderwicks (2005; National Book Award winner) and The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (2008, all Knopf)—will enjoy this offering.—Kira Moody, Whitmore Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

Kirkus Reviews

Music and melodrama waft on the ocean breezes as the Penderwicks spend time on the Maine coast, in the third installment about this charming family.

Well, most of the Penderwicks. Dad's on his honeymoon; eldest sister Rosalind is away at the Jersey shore. Joining the three remaining sisters and their beloved aunt is dear friend Jeffrey, introduced in the first novel. Skye, second eldest, is now overseer of her sisters and isn't happy about it, especially when the third, Jane, develops a crush on a most unworthy boy. Then Batty, the youngest, confounds everyone by discovering musical talent that no Penderwick has ever displayed. Most dramatic of all is the startling revelation that slowly reveals itself in the musician living next door. Readers who enjoyed the previous books (The Penderwicks,2005;The Penderwicks on Gardam Street,2008) will like this one, too, because of its cozy familiarity, and Birdsall writes with a warm, sure hand. The girls are, as usual, kind, endearing, self-possessed, self-aware andcomforting.Readers will also be happy, though wary, about the surprise disclosure but will likely see it coming. That's OK. Penderwick fans like their stories old-fashioned, replete with coincidences and gently soap-opera–esque elements.

Somewhere, there are families like the Penderwicks. Lucky them. The rest of us just get to read about them. Lucky us.(Fiction. 9-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172050855
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	11/15/2019
Series:	Penderwicks , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Related Subjects

• Kids
• Fiction & Literature - Kids
• Holidays, Festivals & Celebrations - Kids Fiction
• Classics for Children - Kids Fiction
• Family Life - Kids Fiction
• Miscellaneous Holidays, Festivals & Celebrations - Kids Fiction

Read an Excerpt

The Penderwick family was being torn apart. The tearing wouldn’t last long—only two weeks—but still it was uncomfortable. Mr. Penderwick was the first to go, flying off to England with his new wife, Iantha, for scientific conferences and a bit of honeymoon. With them went Ben, Iantha’s son, who was too small to be without his mother, honeymoon or not.

That had been two days earlier, and now the remaining Penderwicks—four sisters named Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty—were about to tear apart even more. Early the next morning, three of them would leave for Maine with their Aunt Claire, while the fourth headed to New Jersey with her best friend. The sisters had never been apart for an entire two weeks, and though all of them were nervous about it, the one going off on her own was the most nervous. This was the oldest, thirteen-year-old Rosalind, and she was having a terrible time accepting that her sisters could survive without her.

Right now she was waiting in her bedroom for them to arrive. She didn’t want to be in her bedroom—she wanted to be with five-year-old Batty, getting her ready for bed just like she always did. But tonight Skye and Jane, the two middle sisters, were helping Batty with her bath and pajamas. Practice, Aunt Claire called it, or a dry run. She’d thought it would calm Rosalind to see that indeed she wasn’t absolutely needed when it came to Batty. And Rosalind would have been calm, except that the others were supposed to come to her room as soon as they were finished, and that should have been at least ten minutes ago. How could a simple bath take so long? They knew she wanted to have one last MOPS—that is, Meeting of Penderwick Sisters—before Batty had to go to sleep. One last MOPS before they were all separated for two weeks.

“Two whole weeks,” groaned Rosalind, then looked up hopefully, because she heard footsteps in the hall. They were here.

But it was only one of them—twelve-year-old Skye, the second sister—and she didn’t have the look of someone who’d just conducted a successful bath. Her blond hair was hanging in damp clumps and there were wet spots on her tee shirt.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said. “Batty’s fine. She didn’t drown or anything.”

“Then what happened?”

“Hound got into the tub with her.”

That explained why Skye was so wet. The Penderwicks’ dog was large and enthusiastic—getting him out of a bathtub would make anyone wet. But it didn’t explain why he’d been in the bathroom the first place.

“Hound always tries to get into the tub,” said Rosalind. “That’s why he’s not allowed near Batty at bath time. Didn’t you know that?”

“Nope, and neither did Jane. But we know it now, and we’ll clean up the bathroom later. I promise.”

A dry run! The irony wasn’t lost on Rosalind. She was determined not to scold, though, not this very last night. “Where are the others?”

“Jane is helping Batty with her pajamas. They’ll be here soon.” Skye shook her head violently, tossing droplets of water across the room. “Where’s your Latin dictionary? I need to look up revenge.”

“On my bookshelf, though I wish you wouldn’t.” Rosalind knew why Skye was thinking about revenge, and that she’d been thinking of little else for the last twenty-four hours. Which was absolutely not the best way to prepare for the next two weeks. With Rosalind off in New Jersey, Skye would be the OAP—Oldest Available Penderwick—and she needed to concentrate on taking care of her two younger sisters, not on carrying out revenge. “Daddy says the best revenge is to be better than your enemy.”

“I’m doing that, too. Almost anyone could,” said Skye, leafing through the dictionary. “Here it is. Revenge: ultio or vindicta. Then it says: to take revenge on is se vindicare in. Se vindicare in Jeffrey’s loathsome mother. How do I say Jeffrey’s loathsome mother in Latin?”

Skye’s desire for revenge was justified—Rosalind knew that. Jeffrey was Jeffrey Tifton, a boy the Penderwicks had met the previous summer while renting a cottage at his mother’s estate, called Arundel. By the time that vacation was over, Jeffrey was their excellent friend and honorary brother, and since then the sisters had seen him as often as they could, which was nowhere near often enough. He was always too far away—either at Arundel, a few hours west of the Penderwicks’ home in Cameron, Massachusetts, or at his Boston boarding school, a few hours east of Cameron. It had been natural then for the younger three sisters to want Jeffrey in Maine with them, and with great hope, they’d invited him.

After much dilly-dallying and back-and-forthing by his mother, permission had finally been given, spirits raised, ecstatic phone calls exchanged—until suddenly, just that morning, a mere twenty-four hours before departure for Maine, the permission had been withdrawn. Jeffrey’s mother had decided that he wasn’t going with the Penderwicks. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was stuck at Arundel for the whole summer.

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