I first read “The Penderwicks” by Jeanne Birsall, at the perfect age of twelve. It was about the age of the main characters, 12-year-old Rosalind, 11-year-old Skye, and 10-year-old Jane, who along with their four-year-old sister, find adventure over a summer vacation in Massachusetts. Immediately I picked out my favorite character, and after rereading the book this summer and discovering the others in the series, it still holds true. Skye Penderwick, with her determined attitude, outspoken humor, and tomboy swagger once made me aspire to be this fictional tween… or at least the pieces of me that weren’t convinced I already was her. Reading the series when twenty, I’ve determined that young girls need more role models like Skye in their fiction.
The first book, taking place over summer, doesn’t offer much insight into the academic outlook of each sister. Except for the fact that Skye studies from a math book she brought with her to Arundel, determined to teach herself algebra ahead of when her school will. Girls don’t exactly wake up every morning knowing that their gender is expected to be amazing at math, but here Skye is, working so hard that teachers have accused her of cheating.
It’s Sky’s personality, of course that makes her my favorite. Her loyal and fiery attitude leads her to stand up for her family honor in a climatic way, and title her as the bravest of her sisters for the rest of the series. No spoilers, but it pretty great.
Skye knew she shouldn’t go in there… and even Batty was tugging at her arm to keep her from doing it. But it didn’t matter. The family — her mother’s! — honor was at stake, and she had to defend the people she loved the best. She took a deep breath, girded herself for battle, and threw open the door.
One argument against the finesse of her character is that she’s not the nicest to her sisters, especially four-year-old Batty. But hey, sometimes sisters pick on each other, and you can take it from someone who also grew up with four. Yet in both cases there is still tons of love and support. Skye is still an extremely stand up character to her sisters when it counts, and she made Batty fearless because the four-year-old took Skye's spirited words to heart. Batty asks,
“Am I odd? Is there something wrong with me, like Mrs. Tifton said?”
Skye knelt down on the wet grass and looked right into Batty’s eyes. “No you stupid idiot, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect.”
For Skye this is super sweet, and exactly what Batty needed to hear.
And she does not need your gender roles, thank you.
“You’re right Daddy,” said Rosalind, “We’ll be perfect ladies.”
“I won’t,” said Skye, “I will, however, be gentlemanly.”
While strong females characters shouldn't have to tomboys, it is important to have some that are. The more variety in children's book the more likely a young girl will find a character she can relate to.
In the second book “The Penderwicks on Gardam Street,” we see Skye and her sisters in their home town during the school year.
When the new neighbor’s baby first observes Skye, he stops saying “duck,” the only word he says, and calls her “pretty.” Skye is left to make “ghastly faces at him to prove that she wasn’t.” Ben does this on other days, Skye dismisses the opinion, and when his mother gives Skye reassurance, we get this gem of a quote.
“Please don’t," said Skye, then knew she’d been rude. "I’m sorry. I just don’t think I am, and I don’t care, anyway. I’d rather be amazingly intelligent."
A very nice thing to say, Skye, for all of your young readers!
“Skye vs. a baby,” later takes us to Skye bringing Ben to his crib and hilariously holding him "like a bomb that might go off at any second,” which is great to read when you love Skye and need the occasional reassurance that it’s perfectly fine to not be naturally maternal.
“Please don’t take my dislike of you personally,” she told Ben… “I suppose you can’t help being a baby."
During the next summer vacation of book three, “The Penderwicks at Point Mouette,” Skye is the OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick,) while Rosalind takes a separate vacation. Skye rises up to the new position of leadership, though fearful she won’t do a good job. It proves challenging when her younger sister, Jane gets completely swept away in her first crush. The romantic and aspiring-writer falls for a boy with a skateboard, who is clearly uninteresting and uninterested in her.
Skye’s clear head over Jane’s crush on Dominic is even already inspiring to Mercedes, a seven-year-old Batty befriends that summer. Skye simply says,
“I’d certainly never cry over Dominic.”
“Really?” Mercedes was so impressed with this show of independence that she slipped her hand into Skye’s.
"Really," said Skye, and didn't let go, at least not for a while.
Once again Skye has interests girls aren’t often encouraged to pursue. Skye is also hilarious and it makes her not only inspiring but fun to read.
She crawled back into the house, grabbed “Death by Black Hole,” and found a shady spot in the grass where she could stretch out and read.
She’s reached the section called “When the Universe Goes Bad” and was finding it most soothing. Killer asteroids, a frozen Earth, the end to humanity — all this was much easier to handle than a besotted sister.
If Skye is your favorite Penderwick sister the forth book, "The Penderwicks in Spring" may be a bit disappointing to you. Skye grew to a 17-year-old that isn’t in the story all that much; the reader only sees her through other characters, and doesn't directly read her thoughts anymore.
Nonetheless, Batty as a main character, about same age that Skye and Jane started out as, made this book surprisingly good, though unlike anything the Penderwicks have done before.
Though Skye lacks a presence in the novel, this ends up being okay when she plays a large, very admirable part in the story’s resolution. She proves, once again she can be a fantastic older sister when called upon.
Skye also evades romance for admirable reasons, leaving us with a quote I want more young girls to see.
"I just don’t want a boyfriend right now. I want to get out of high school and go to college and learn, learn, learn, and soak up the universe."
As the book series continued, I couldn’t help but worry a bit about Skye. Young adolescents is often unhelpful to girl’s confidence, many dropping sports and shying away from speaking in class especially math and science. I worried what would happen to Skye were she a real eleven- and twelve-year-old. Her fictional self did just fine though of course, and will hopefully serve as a powerful example to the girls Sky’s age reading about her. She's continued to play soccer, find passion in academics, and refused to be pressured into dating before she wants to.
As stated in aKirkus review, Jeanne Birdsall is currently working on a fifth Penderwick book, and as the story jumps ahead eight more years, we’re likely only hear Skye through our eleven-year-old narrator who was born between books three and four. Even if we don't know Skye's thoughts directly I can’t wait to see what inspiration her first years of adulthood will hold.
