I found a modern-day Little Women!

You know the beloved stories by Louisa May Alcott: the series begins with Little Women… Yes, I read and loved them as a young person, too.

I stumbled onto a modern-day version in The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall.

The summary:

While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four loveable sisters, age four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.

Of course, in typical fashion, what I found in my library was book three and book five of the 5-book series, so I read them all “cattywampus.”  I recommend starting with book one if you possibly can. This is a story with lots of characters. If you start in the middle, it’s harder to track who is who.

Little Women was like that, too. Four sisters is a lot; the Penderwicks have the same number. Better to catch them while they are young rather than seeing half of them already grown and in love!

The charm of this series, for me, is in the development of the individual sisters and their group dynamic. It’s always a tender thing to read of a very close family; such a treat. These girls are all strong characters, each different and brilliant in her own right.

You know from Piper Pan and Her Merry Band that I prize friendship and its power to help us bloom. The Penderwick sisters are certainly sisters, but they are also friends. They have adventures worth having, just as the Merry Band does—though there is less swordplay and more feeding bunnies and playing soccer!

The Penderwicks became a National Book Award winner, and the series made Jeanne Birdsall a New York Times Bestselling author!

Hooray for this modern-day
Little Women!

Trot on down to your library and put The Penderwicks on hold; or zip over to Amazon and get your ebook copy now!