The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (U)

The Penderwick sisters are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn t quite what they had in mind Mr. Penderwick s sister has decided it s time for him to start dating and the girls know that can only mean one thing disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It s high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return.Publishers WeeklyThis sequel to Birdsall's National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks, has even more charm than the original. The prologue hits the only maudlin note, flashing back to Mrs. Penderwick on her deathbed as she instructs her husband's sister, Claire, to make sure he finds love again after sufficient mourning. The Penderwick sisters Rosalind, Jane, Skye and Batty learn of this valediction four years later when Aunt Claire begins arranging blind dates. An emergency MOPS (Meeting of Penderwick Sisters) hatches the Save Daddy plan, in which the girls orchestrate dates so dreadful their father will see widowed life is best. Neighbors on Gardam Street include football-playing brothers Nick and Tommy (the latter plays Tracy to Rosalind's Hepburn), and two newcomers: a widowed professor and her toddler baby. Middle sisters Jane and Skye, who share a room but nothing else, steal the show by swapping homework assignments with hilariously catastrophic results. It's sheer pleasure to spend time with these exquisitely drawn characters, girls so real that readers will feel the wind through their hair as they power down the soccer field. Ages 8 12. (Apr.)Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.