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Four eccentric sisters and their loving but distracted father, take a holiday cottage in the beautiful Arundel estate.
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Children's Book review

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters

By Jeanne Birdsall

Published by David Fickling Books

Four eccentric sisters and their loving but distracted father, take a holiday cottage in the beautiful Arundel estate.
Once there, Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty (who is never without her butterfly wings) spend an idyllic summer with their new friend Jeffrey and cast of other characters, roaming the grounds of Arundel and avoiding Jeffrey's scathing mother Mrs Tifton.
There are few of the trappings of 21st Century life in this book; instead the girls rely on their imaginations and amateur detective skills to pass the time.
The freedom the sisters have to explore their surroundings away from adult constraints, lends the novel a timeless quality, evocative of classic tales from E Nesbit and Louisa Alcott. Altogether a reassuring debut novel, which won the US National Book Award 2005.

Reading age: 7+
Interest level: 8+

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