May Meeting

The Penderwicks = 4 stars!

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday for our end-of-the-year party and our Penderwicks book discussion. It was a lot of fun and the highlight of course, was our interview with the author, Jeanne Birdsall. Ms. Birdsall was absolutely delightful - we really appreciate her taking the time to talk with us. She was warm and funny and interested in getting to know our book club members. She answered all of our questions very thoughtfully. So a big thank you to Ms. Birdsall! More on the interview in a bit...

Overall, the book club really liked The Penderwicks. Many of our members found that they identified most with Skye Penderwick - the logical, adventurous, tomboy sister. Everyone agreed that they didn't like Mrs. Tifton but felt that it was necessary to have a bad character to make the book interesting. No one liked Dexter either, especially when he called Jane's Sabrina Starr book "lousy." A lot of us also felt that Jeffrey's relationship with his mother will continue to improve since she seems to have accepted that he doesn't want to go into the military. We are all really looking forward to the sequel, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street!

For the party, we had balloons and a Book Buddies Book Club cake decorated with a book in purple frosting. (In the picture it looks blue, but it really was purple, which is the Book Buddies color).

Around 4:10pm we called Ms. Birdsall at her home. We found out that Jeffrey does make a brief appearance in the second book which takes place at the girls home in fictional Cameron, Massachusetts. She is currently working on the third book which will be another summer story and she has planned five books total. She identifies most with the youngest Penderwick, Batty, but said that the three youngest Penderwicks all have big pieces of her in them since she is a younger sister too. Mrs. Tifton is based on her own mother and she told us the story of where she got the name Penderwick. Originally she had chosen the name Pendergast but her good friend and fellow author Patricia MacLachlan reviewed the early manuscripts and could never pronounce the name correctly. So Ms. Birdsall decided that was a very bad thing and went online to find another name. She wanted it to sound English and many English names end in "wick" so she settled on "Penderwick."

We had a wonderful time talking with Ms. Birdsall and asking our questions. It is always such a thrill to talk with an author about their work.

Foreign Editions of The Penderwicks

I love seeing how the covers of books are changed when they are published in other countries. It's not always easy to find that information but fortunately some authors are now including it on their websites. We saw that in March with The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler had images of the Japanese cover on her website. And now Jeanne Birdsall has a wonderful page on her website with The Penderwicks covers from England, Greece, China, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Holland! View these covers here.

This is the British cover by artist David Frankland. It's very similar to the American version except it's darker and he's added Jeffrey to the back cover!

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This is the Greek cover:

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And this is the German cover...fascinating, isn't it?

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The BIG reveal...

Ok, so I was going to wait until Monday but I decided I'd let you all know now what the next (and last) book is going to be for this school year. We actually have a little less time than usual before the next meeting because we had to schedule the May meeting a week early due to Memorial Day. So for those of you who want to get a head start.....the May book is going to be The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall. (Great title, huh?) I really love this book and I think it's such a great way for us to get ready for summer vacation by reading about four wonderful sisters on summer vacation...

Meet the Penderwicks, four different sisters with one special bond. There's responsible, practical Rosalind; stubborn, feisty Skye; dreamy, artistic Jane; and shy little sister Batty, who won't go anywhere without her butterfly wings.

When the girls and their doting father head off for their summer holiday, they are in for a surprise. Instead of the cozy, tumbledown cottage they expected, they find themselves on a beautfiul estate called Arundel. Soon the girls are busy discovering the summertime magic of Arundel's sprawling gardens, treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and the cook who makes the best gingerbread in Massachusetts. But the most wonderful discovery of all is Jeffrey Tifton, son of Arundel's owner, who quickly proves to be the perfect companion for their adventures.

The icy-hearted Mrs. Tifton is not as pleased with the Penderwicks as Jeffrey is, though, and warns the new friends to stay out of trouble. Which, of course, they will - won't they?

One thing's for sure: it will be a summer the Penderwicks will never forget.

Anyone interested in getting started over the weekend, feel free to come in and pick up a copy of the book! Otherwise I'll pass out copies on Monday at our meeting...