The Penderwicks on Gardam Street - Jeanne Birdsall
So far she'd come up with nothing but a name: The Save-Daddy Plan. She knew in her deepest heart that a more honest title would be the Save-Rosalind-and-Her-Sisters Plan, but she was not ready to admit that even to herself.
As soon as I finished reading the first Penderwicks book to Ridley, she insisted that we start on the second book right away. It's taken us a little while since we left it at home over spring break, but we just finished tonight. Ridley loved it so much that when I closed the book, she exclaimed: "Now we can go read the first book again!" (I'd told her that Birdsall was working on a third book, but according to her website it takes her about three years to write a book, and this one was published in 2008.)
The story in book two (with its not-very-creative-title) is that beloved Aunt Claire has shown up with a letter for her brother Mr. Penderwick from his wife, written before she passed away a few years before. In it, she encourages him to start dating, and Claire has some specific guidelines to make sure he actually gives it a fair shot.
But the girls—Rosalind in particular—have trouble with this idea, and come up with the Save-Daddy Plan. In the meantime, there are other adventures aplenty for each girl: Batty befriends the little boy next door and together they spy on the Bug Man; Jane and Skye trade homework assignments with some hilarious consequences; Rosalind discovers that her neighbor Tommy is really annoying and just doesn't understand why he acts the way he does.
Again, since most of the girls are older than Ridley, I wasn't entirely sure how much she understood everything, but I think the mix of humor and drama, not to mention the fact that it's about four sisters, drew her into the story. I really liked it too, and I'll be eagerly waiting for the next book in the series.
Fed to jonathan's brain | April 07, 2010
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