delightful, atypical - Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks

I just finished reading The Penderwicks aloud to my six-year-old son. I am floored at how great a read it is, and at how much he (loves Legos, Star Wars, "handball," and inappropriate anatomical references) and I (love sci-fi, manga, African history, and control-freak strategy games) enjoyed this book, page by page and line by line.

It's the story of a summer of rather safe, but not dull, adventure, and very innocent romance, featuring four girls and their several crushes, pets (a dog and a very tame father), allies, and nemeses. The setting is old New England, rural, and perfectly free - just right for kids, though alien to my own, with their dawn-to-dusk routines and constant adult supervision.

What makes this story so readable? For me, I found the characters easy to differentiate by voice. This isn't always the case. In too many books - whether for children or otherwise, the voices that occur to me (especially important when reading to a sharp-eared first grader!) are hard to keep track of.

It's all Thomson & Thompson, if you know what I mean.

Birdsall's characters - all four girls, two boys, five supporting adults and a dog - all have distinctive voices. Nobody needs to think whether Jane is talks like an officious oddball - her dialogue demands it. And Skye can only talk too loud most of the time. There's just no two ways about it. I love that about this book.

I think also that the pace of events is just about perfect. There's always something that makes my stomach lurch a little, or would, if I was one of the main characters. And despite the obvious gaps between them and me, it's easy enough to identify with them. They're like different facets of a good person, anyway - impassioned, righteous, creative, shy, bold, analytical, athletic, dreamy, caring... I felt through most of the book as if we had known the Penderwicks for some time.

This is a great book to read aloud to younger, beginning readers, and I'm going to recommend it to my dragons- and swords- obsessed older son, as well. When he puts down the most recent Goosebumps. I'll post his reactions if I get them.

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I was happy just now to discover two things. First, that I spelled the author's name right, and second, that she has three Penderwicks books. Go see!