The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Jeanne Birdsall
 The Penderwick family comprises Martin Penderwick and his four daughters Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty (ages 12, 11, 10, and 4). Their mother Elizabeth Penderwick died of cancer four years before the story, a few weeks after Batty was born. A Summer Tale features the family, including Hound the dog, on a three-week vacation in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, where they have rented a cottage on the beautiful estate Arundel. There the sisters befriend Jeffrey, the neglected, musically talented son of the strict and overbearing owner Mrs. Tifton.