RAR Best Of: Penderwicks Fans Rejoice!
Read-Aloud Revival ®
Sarah Mackenzie
4.9 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn more about the Circle with Sarah Retreat happening this August
Today, in this Best Of Read Aloud Revival episode, we’re revisiting a conversation about a series I absolutely adore: The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall.
The Penderwicks follows the escapades of four spirited sisters, Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty. The books are a modern nod to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and they’ve won tons of awards including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, several ALA Notable Children’s Book Awards, and the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award.
Since recording this interview for RAR episode 100, Jeanne unknowingly planted the seed for my own book, A Little More Beautiful, the Story of a Garden when I visited her and her Northampton, Massachusetts, home. So now, of course, we like to call A Little More Beautiful “our book.”
The first book in the Penderwicks series, The Penderwicks, A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is our RAR Premium Family Book Club pick for this summer.
That means we’ve got a full Family Book Club Guide with all the trimmings available now for members AND if you and your kids sign up for RAR Premium, they will have a chance to meet Jeanne Birdsall live on Zoom on August 25th.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- How Jeanne got her start writing in her 40s and why it’s never too late to follow a dream
- About Jeanne’s character-driven writing process and why she always envisioned the Penderwicks as a series
- Where Jeanne gets her inspiration
Learn more about Jeanne Birdsall:
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Mentioned in This Episode:
- RAR Premium Text SARAH to 33777
- Broadside Bookshop
- RAR #42: Inspiring Parents in Children’s Literature, Greta Eskridge
Learn more about the Circle with Sarah Retreat happening this August
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A quick invitation here at the top of the episode because I don't want you to miss a brand |
| 0:05.4 | new free book list I have for you. |
| 0:08.0 | This one is a collection of favorites for Mama. |
| 0:11.4 | So if you're feeling like you want and need to fall back in love with your own reading |
| 0:15.9 | life and to do it with a book that I'll suck you right in, then this is the book list |
| 0:20.4 | for you. |
| 0:21.4 | Text the word retreat, R-E-T-R-E-A-T to the number 33777 and I'll send you that free |
| 0:29.6 | book list as soon as it's ready. |
| 0:32.0 | I'm putting the final touches on it now. |
| 0:34.4 | Happy reading. |
| 0:35.4 | Hey, hey Sarah McKenzie here. |
| 0:43.4 | You're listening to the Read-A-Loud Revival, the show that helps you make meaningful and |
| 0:48.5 | lasting connections with your kids through books. |
| 0:54.0 | Today we're talking about a book series I adore. |
| 0:58.5 | In fact, if you were to ask me what kind of book that I wish there were more of, like |
| 1:03.6 | if you said, hey Sarah, name any book that you wish you could find more like I would say |
| 1:08.6 | without hesitation or delay. |
| 1:11.1 | I would say The Pender Wicks by Jeannie Birdzall. |
| 1:14.5 | The Pender Wicks is a captivating series and it follows the escapades of The Pender |
| 1:19.6 | Wicks family. |
| 1:21.0 | Four spirited sisters named Rosalind, Sky, Jane and Batty. |
| 1:27.0 | The books have won tons of awards, including the National Book Award for Young People's |
... |
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