Well, I liked this too. This is the second book about the Penderwicks, four little girls, their widowed dad, and Hound. These books belong to the family subgenre of children's lit—like E. Nesbit's Bastable family stories and Eleanor Estes' Moffats. Birdsall sets her books in contemporary times, but apart from a few unimportant details, they might as well be set in the 50s or 20s. There are lots of strong female characters—but the same can be said of Roller Skates (copyright 1936) so I'm not sure that makes this an especially modern book.
I suppose the reason why these books don't seem to belong to the modern world is that there isn't much grit (conflict and sadness yes, but no Sin). In The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Daddy dates, Rosalind gets mad at a boy, Jane and Skye swap homework assignments, and Batty spies on a mysterious stranger. By the end of the book, everything resolves neatly. But the resolution is satisfying—like a Shakespearean comedy where everyone ends up married to the right person. A cozy book, good for reading in bed.
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