The Penderwicks at Last

The Penderwicks #5

by Jeanne Birdsall, Susan Denaker (Narrator)

The finale you've all been waiting for: The Penderwicks at Last is the final, flawless installment in the modern classic series from National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Jeanne Birdsall!
Nine years, five older siblings, a few beloved dogs, and an endless array of adventures—these are the things that have shaped Lydia's journey since readers first met her in The Penderwicks in Spring.
Now it's summertime, and eleven-year-old Lydia is dancing at the bus stop, waiting for big sister Batty to get home from college.
This is a very important dance and a very important wait because the two youngest sisters are about to arrive home to find out that the Penderwicks will all be returning to Arundel this summer, the place where it all began. And better still is the occasion: a good old-fashioned, homemade-by-Penderwicks wedding.
Bursting with heart and brimming with charm, this is a joyful, hilarious ode to the family we love best. And oh my MOPS—Meeting of Penderwick Siblings—does Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks at Last crescendo to one perfect Penderwick finale.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Young Adult

9 pages, Audiobook

First published May 15, 2018

About the author

Jeanne Birdsall grew up in the suburbs west of Philadelphia, where she attended wonderful public schools. Jeanne had lots of great teachers, but her favorites were: Mrs. Corkhill, sixth grade, who encouraged her intellectual curiosity; Mr. Tremonte, eighth grade algebra, who taught Jeanne to love and respect math; and Miss Basehore, second and fourth year Latin, to whom Jeanne (and Mr. Penderwick) will be forever grateful.
Although she first decided to become a writer when she was ten years old, it took Jeanne until she was forty-one to get started. In the years in between, Jeanne had many strange jobs to support herself, and also worked hard as a photographer, the kind that makes art. Some of Jeanne's photographs are included in the permanent collections of museums, including the Smithsonian and the Philadelphia Art Museum. Her work can be seen in several galleries, including the R. Michelson Galleries in western Massachusetts.
Jeanne's home now is with her husband in Northampton, Massachusetts. Their house is old and comfortable, full of unruly animals, and surrounded by gardens.

Reviews

[mairiachi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so confused lol



There are a lot of spoilers ahead and I'm sure anyone who read The Penderwicks in Spring will have a premonition about what's coming, but if that book hasn't spoiled anything for you, stop while you're ahead.

Here are my issues with the book, apologies in advance for how many times I repeat myself, I am not cut out for reviews.


- 1. Dùšek has no character. You don't know anything about him, how he and Skye met, or how (perhaps why) they got together...only that he's from the Czech Republic and has four siblings. I kept getting the feeling that Dùšek was introduced simply to get Skye out of the way so that Batty could marry Jeffrey. It felt forced to bring in a brand new character in the very last book, to marry off Skye. It read more like a Baffrey fan fic and less like a series finale.
- 2. Jeffrey has SO MUCH (more) personality (than Dùšek), and a huge connection with Skye - an incredible friendship through the whole series, and they're constantly there for each other. Why Birdsall wrote their relationship like this only to split them up is beyond me, but the entire thing feels forced and unnatural. You can't expect the same level of affection we have towards Jeffrey to automatically be transferred to a brand new character simply because we're told that Skye likes him better than Jeffrey. Let's be honest, Batty was a side character until book four, it wouldn't feel like Birdsall was trying to get her out of the way like it did with Skye.
- 3. Lots of people would argue with me on this one, but the series has been centered around Skeffrey and their relationship since book one, Birdsall has really been milking it, so what was the point? Why would you string us along this whole time. (proof: Point Mouette: pages 78-79, 116, 117, 199, 230-238, 241-242, 244, 258-260, 282-283. If you think that's not enough, point me to the places in the book where Batty and Jeffrey have [more] chemistry, I'm interested in what you think. I'd also have proof from the other books, but those are the ones I have written down. If I get a chance to reread the series and write down more proof, I'll come back and update the list.)
- 4. Why is Skye getting married at Arundel...but not to Jeffrey. And Rosalind getting married...but not to Cagney. Weird decision. Seems awkward to get married in a place where the memories are filled with you being love-smitten (Rosalind) or loved (Skye) with/by someone else. Tommy never even saw Arundel, has no connection to it - why wouldn't you choose somewhere you share memories of (for example, the place he proposed)? Jeffrey's memories are his being love-smitten with Skye, and growing up under the wing of a helicopter mom. Good times. Why make him relive that, at your wedding to someone else? Oh and then there's Dùšek, whoops forgot about him (wOnDeR wHy), but Dùšek is the other fiancé marrying a girl who was running around w a different guy the last time she visited. Doesn't that seem like a serious lack of judgement on their part? Did Birdsall even think about the setting, or was it purely for nostalgia?
- 5. The whole book felt like Pride and Prejudice (I kept expecting Skye to suddenly realize Jeffrey is The One - even though his mother would write him out of the will, etc. like Lady Catherine), especially in the first and fifth books. It centers a lot around Skeffrey, and apparently for absolutely no reason. Except maybe to get us to buy the next book. (if you want a comparison of similarities, the first is my compilation and the second is another Skeffrey fan
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- and -
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)
- 6. Skye is so different. No longer funny, really quiet (and when she does speak, she talks like Jane of all people - see #9), doesn't even come into the story much, even though she was p much the MC until book 4 (which is when Skye's character changed so abruptly and she became really rude to Jeffrey. I'm betting that's bc Birdsall was tryna make Batty's character more sympathetic so that the Skeffrey shippers would start shipping Baffrey instead, which is such a cop out).
- 7. Batty seems to genuinely care for Wesley, so why the sudden maybe-I-want-Jeffrey-instead? Again, an abrupt change in affection for absolutely no logical, realistic reason. With a smoother, realistic transition, I'd actually be open to it because it would be convincing. This just felt like poor writing.
- 8. Again, why does Jeffrey have way more personality than Dùšek, if we're supposed to support Skye's new dude? Birdsall makes it incredibly difficult to like him. He speaks ONCE - in Czech. You can't even tell what he's saying. Which reminds me...
- 9. Since when can Skye speak another language?
(someone translated what they said on pg 279 and I dare you to tell me this doesn't sound like Jane.)
Dùšek:
"Poj' k mne, ty moje mala morska hvezdice."
"Come to me, my shooting star."
Skye:
"Chvili na me pockej, Dusku."
"In a moment, wait for me."
Dùšek:
"Honem. Styska se mi."
'Come on. I miss you."
Skye:
"Ano. I do too."
"Yes. I do too."
😭💀
It's as if Dùšek was simply introduced to knock out some competition for Jeffrey...because Jeffrey has so much character, and Dùšek has none. He barely speaks the whole book and it's his wedding.

- 10. So many things had happened off the page, which is reasonable since a lot of time had passed in between the fourth and fifth book, but it was really confusing and felt like Birdsall was taking the easy way out by just letting us know it happened, instead of making the effort to show it.
- 11. You'd think for the last book, Birdsall would bring all the old characters back for one last round of applause, everyone together for the last farewell from the Penderwicks - and their very first wedding - but no. Only Cagney and Nick.
- 12. and if Nick is married, I would have loved to see that - find out what Laura's like, what his kids are like. One of the kids is mentioned in passing because she's crying. That's it.)
- 13. Batty and Jeffrey aren't even realistic...she was a 4yo looking up to someone who saved them from something scary. That was not a rational, mature, developed mind saying I feel attracted to him, I want to marry him - that was awe, hero-worship, and turning that into a relationship is asking us to suspend too much disbelief. A toddler's brain isn't developmentally capable of romantic love, that's disgusting btw. Her love for Jeffrey was the same kind of love she had for her dad, her sisters, Cagney's rabbits, etc.
- 14. The spur-of-the-moment "let's have a double wedding!" was very unlike anybody and didn't seem to fit the occasion. Skye wanted to take it slow, Dùšek didn't. So why was Skye suddenly on board? Birdsall never gives a reason for it, she simply expects us to roll with it.
- 15. There wasn't an epilogue, it ended on a really abrupt note, and I thought that was bc she'd show us where they were in five years. This is the grand finale, the final goodbye, the last hurrah, the ninth inning, it should at least wrap up - instead it was a huge let down and a really disappointing way to end a series.
- 16. Like another review said, it's as if Birdsall spent the whole book trying to prove just how close Dùšek is to the Penderwicks - but the problem is, we aren't close to him and Birdsall never tries to help us relate or make us feel close. (Though someone did argue that Birdsall was trying to keep him in the background so that we wouldn't have anything to criticize about him and that we could just fill in the character details if we wanted to like him - which is why the one time he speaks, it's in Czech.)
- 17. I was talking about it with someone and they mentioned how odd it was that Lydia remembers Batty and Jeffrey as laughter and music together - this doesn't make sense, because Jeffrey is all the way in Germany playing jazz and Batty is off at college while Jeffrey sits around twiddling his thumbs about Skye. Yes, maybe they got together during season breaks, except for the fact that when Jeffrey first sees Batty, he doesn't even recognize her. Like Verena said, either they spend their time together or they don't. They can't do both. It's another example of the slapdash-writing that pervades the entire book.
- 18. Why write about two people as if they're a couple, and then not make them a couple. It made the whole series seem pointless - kind of ruined all five for me bc then there's no point to a series about a friendship (whether it turns romantic or not) if they end up hating each other (specifically in book 4).
- 19. Westley and Batty were really cute together, seemed to get along really well, seemed really close, and he felt like another Jeffrey - written out entirely for the sake of paving the way for Batty to get together with someone. (Interesting how intent Batty and Skye are in disliking people who love them.)
- 20. I think if Birdsall had really intended to do this all along, then she should have made it clearer. There was only very slight foreshadowing on Batty's part and none on Jeffrey's. He doesn't even really notice her except as a cute little girl. He helps her and he likes her, just like you would with a baby, but you wouldn't look at a four year old and say imma marry you someday (because 🤢). When Batty grows up, she doesn't refer to her comments ever again because it's just not on her radar. Yes of course she loves him - even Skye loved him and look where she ended up! Not together with Jeffrey - so why should Batty? Not sure how we're supposed to see this coming when there's no [romantic] love shown between them (maybe it's all off-page, but that's exactly what it is, off the page. We should be shown, not told, that Jeffrey and Batty have feelings for each other).
- 21. Lastly, the ending was really dumb, it fell flat and was very abrupt. Worse, it skipped over the ACTUAL wedding, the one event the entire book is centered around. If you're going to marry Skye off to some random dude, at least show us. It felt like Birdsall was getting bored writing the book so she cut it short, and it was just another way the writing felt scrambled up and hurried, with too many bloopers and main characters being uncharacteristic, with not enough thought put into the final book of the series.

I don't mean to be dramatic or fangirl, really. I have a lot of problems with the book, but the big issue I have is the way Birdsall wrote the characters in this one - Skye and Dùšek aren't cute. They have zero chemistry, their relationship, story, and wedding are unrealistic, and the readers don't have any emotional attachment to Dùšek like they did with Jeffrey. I'm not sure what she thought was a good idea about this, and it's disappointing that this is the story she decided to conclude the series with.

I got the book today (May 15th, 2018), sat down, and read it immediately. I've grown up with these characters (only a lot slower lol) and then to see it do a full 180 was weird; I really miss the old vibes of the Penderwicks. She didn't wrap up anyone else besides (a few of) the Penderwicks, and I would have loved to see where Claire, Nick, Cagney, and their families, all end up.

I'm sort of glad I read it - glad bc that meant I stuck it out till the end, but overall frustrated at Birdsall, that this is where she leaves us. I had high hopes for the last book about the Penderwicks because I know what fantastic writing Birdsall is capable of, and to get this instead was a huge disappointment.

I don't think it was well-written, especially compared to the first three. The first half of the book was mind-numbingly boring, didn't have the Penderwick vibe or storytelling, didn't have a good ending (something cliched and flat about Lydia dancing off into her future? What was that), and it completely skipped over the one event the book is about, the one everyone has been getting ready for. Definitely not a reread - maybe save yourself the time and trouble of reading it in the first place.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this long-awaited conclusion to the Penderwicks series, which is set 15 years after the first book, the entire Penderwicks clan has returned to Arundel to celebrate Rosalind's wedding to Tommy Geiger. Lydia, the youngest Penderwick, is eleven years old, and is thrilled to finally visit the magical place that has been the subject of so many stories told by her now grown-up sisters, who range in age from 19 (Batty) to 27 (Rosalind). While wedding preparations unfold around her, Lydia befriends Alice, the daughter of Cagney Pelletier and his wife, Natalie, and the two girls do such things as flee from nosy Mrs. Tifton, whom Jeffrey did not consult before offering Arundel for the wedding, babysit the dog of Batty's ex-boyfriend, and take care of some chickens.

When I first read The Penderwicks nearly ten years ago, I gave it a very enthusiastic five stars. Here was a timeless book about sisters having adventures together, solving their own problems, and mostly looking out for one another. It was my exact cup of tea and I drank it down eagerly. The following sequels varied in quality: I liked The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, but found The Penderwicks at Point Mouette too contrived, and then enjoyed The Penderwicks in Spring, but felt it didn't match the tone of the first three books. This final book, however, is the biggest disappointment of the four sequels, and it sends the series out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The biggest problem, I think, is with the original four characters. In every book of the series prior to this one, one of the original four girls has still been young enough to take center stage as the protagonist of the story. Readers feel at home in those books because even though the characters are a bit older in each new title, readers have built up a relationship with those characters over the course of the series and have a vested interest in learning what happens to them. Because those beloved characters are now all adults in this book, they are suddenly just not that interesting. They all have adult worries about careers and marriage that kids just don't care about, and we are no longer inside any of their heads.

Worse, because they have been kids in the previous books, their adult selves feel very hollow and inauthentic, as though only the most stereotypical vestiges of their personalities actually followed them to adulthood. I kept thinking about those obligatory sit-com episodes in which the characters imagine what they will be like in the future. The actors get dressed up as older versions of themselves, utter a few catchphrases from beneath their fake white wigs and everybody laughs at how silly they look and sound. As I read passages about the older Penderwick girls, I kept finding myself thinking that each one felt like she was pretending to be an adult and not doing a very believable job of it. In that sense, reading this book was like reading a book-length Harry Potter epilogue.

The other big problem, unfortunately, is with Lydia. She only made her first appearance in the fourth book, in which she was only two years old, and she is completely unknown to the reader at the start of this book. While she does have some qualities that supposedly set her apart from the other Penderwicks, such as the fact that she supposedly likes everybody she meets, these are mostly superficial and do nothing to develop her as anything other than the vehicle by which the reader is able to check in on Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty as adults. She essentially spends the whole book trying to recapture what her sisters have told her about Arundel and asking questions meant to remind readers of events that have gone before. (This is especially weird because at every opportunity Batty claims not to remember things, like wearing wings, that I think most average people would remember from their childhoods.)

Without a strong main character, and with the four original characters off to the sidelines posing as grown-ups, there is nothing to distract the reader from the usual tropes that appear in the other books of this series, which, in the past, have been made less annoying by the book's other good qualities. These include Mrs. Tifton's utterly stereotypical and incredible continuing disdain for the Penderwicks after essentially not seeing them for fifteen years, the sheer number of unnecessary characters, including Alice's brother and a host of dogs whose names are impossible to keep straight, and the last-minute decision by one of the other sisters to also get married along with Rosalind. Also problematic is the fact that the book spends all its time building up to a wedding, and then not one word is written about the actual wedding ceremony. I also absolutely hated the references to the "patriarchy." That gave the book a political flavor that was decidedly absent from the others of the series, and which is grossly inappropriate for the 8-to-12-year-old audience.

All in all, this book is just one story too many about these characters. While it is nice to know what happened to them all as adults, it is not necessary to devote an entire book to explaining it. Honestly, a single chapter at the end of the fourth book which described the wedding would have done the trick - that even could have been from Lydia's point of view and it would have been a fun novelty instead of the major liability it is for this book. It was an interesting idea to have the characters age so much from book to book, especially since so many years went by between books, but I also think there is a reason more authors don't take this approach. This fizzling out at the end of the series was almost inevitable, simply because kids want to read about kids, not nostalgic adults who used to be the kids they loved to read about.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

[emma]

reading my favorite childhood series is probably the same as therapy

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

2015:

I've heard rumors this one is about Lydia and takes place at Arundel. Which means it could be the right timeframe and place for it to be about Skye and Jeffrey getting married.

I want this an inordinate amount.


2018 Edit (now that I’ve actually read it):

Well now I’m kind of sad.

SPOILERS:
Things I liked: Lydia is a fun character. I liked the final moment with Jack. I appreciate the message that life goes on and things can turn out in lovely and unexpected ways.

Things I really did not like: This book didn’t really have a conflict... or an antagonist... or tension. And I did not like the resolution of romances here.

Over the past week, I went back and reread the whole series. After rereading The Penderwicks in Spring, I felt bad about insisting that I wanted to see Jeffrey and Skye get married when she’s so clear that she doesn’t want a relationship. But in this book, she gets married to a guy the reader doesn’t even get to meet? Whose only line of dialogue is to call her HIS LITTLE STAR? I love Skye. I always loved Skye. I feel like I just lost her to a stranger.

Most of all, though, I’m super bummed about this pairing off of Batty and Jeffrey. I understand there’s a through-line of the Little Women plot here, but in this context, I found it... I don’t know... icky? There is such an imbalanced power dynamic here. Batty has grown up worshipping this guy from the age of four. He’s her music mentor. He is older and wealthy and successful and she has always been his pseudo little sister. I am very much not behind this romance.

I’m sure I will read whatever Jeanne Birdsall writes next. I’ll probably love it. But this was so disappointing :(

[Sharla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lydia frolicks in meadows, plays with sheep, oh and choreographs a dance for her sisters wedding. ATTENTION: This review is chock full of spoilers. So go no further if that is not okay with you.

-First Thoughts -


Review by the: honestavocado.wordpress.com
I AM FRUSTRATED. And I feel betrayed by Birdsall. Why? Because this last book, the culmination to years spent with these characters completely fell flat. It lacked the emotion, the passion, and depth of insight of the previous books. There was no conflict. NO CONFLICT I TELL YOU!

What the heck is the point of reading a book where everything goes smoothly? It’s boring. Granted, my 8-year-old self was not a fan of conflict. My stories had the sole purpose of removing conflict and making all my characters have these perfect lives. Unfortunately, I soon realized that once you take out the conflict there isn’t much left to tell.

That said, I would have been fine with the lack of conflict if certain character’s stories had been completed. There were loose threads waiting to be tied up that never got tied up.

Why am I so aggravated? Because Skye does not marry Jeffrey. Rather Birdsall copied Little Woman which I was hoping she wouldn’t do. I saw it coming, yet I hoped against hope that she would not copy Louisa May Alcott and stick the youngest, Batty, with the main protagonist Jeffrey. But that is exactly was she did.


All through the series she has been foreshadowing that their relationship would evolve into something romantic when they’re older. Namely because they both are passionate about music and in the first book Batty says she will marry Jeffrey. But that was when she was 4! She was always younger than him so it was just weird. Now that her character is grown up it isn’t weird, but at the same time it still is! Because there is no time for us to see this new relationship between Batty and Jeffrey. It gets pushed to the sidelines. And that deep connection and bond of friendship between Skye and Jeffrey? Kaput. It’s like it never happened.

So much character development happened behind the scenes that we aren’t privy to.

I loved Skye and Jeffrey together. Yet at the same time I can understand why some people may think they might not be the best together. I understand why she put Batty and Jeffrey together, they both love music and are gentle and kind. BUT they don’t have that friendship and chemistry that Skye and Jeffrey have!

The story starts with Rosalind announcing her and Tommy’s wedding at Arundel. It’s told from the viewpoint of the youngest Penderwick, Lydia. I really enjoyed Lydia, she was fun, fresh but I missed reading from multiple character’s perspectives. That said, since she was the youngest there were a lot of scenes where she gets shut out of important conversations because she’s too young. All well and good, but that means we as readers miss out on those conversations too!

Then we find out that Skye is dating a Czech guy named Dusek! A character we don’t even know and never get to know! They barely talk about him!!

At first I was fine, thinking she would break up with him once she got reunited with Jeffrey, but no! The end up getting married, and don't even mention any past chemistry between her and Jeffrey.

Then Batty starts out dating a sweet new character named Wesley. He and Batty are perfect together. He’s an artists, sweet and kind with a lovable 3 legged dog. She breaks up with him before going to Arundel however.

A bright spot was that once Lydia gets to Arundel she finds a new friend named Alice. Alice was one of my favorite characters. Her and Wesley kept me from disliking this book too much. Still too much of the story is spent describing Alice and Lydia playing in a field.

Back to the plot –> Skye decides she wants to get married too and everything progresses smoothly for the wedding plans. But whenever Skye is talking it just didn’t feel like her. Everything was a little off. Batty was older so it was understandable that her character would change. Just so much of the story centered around her and I felt like I didn’t even know her. It was strange and I didn’t get nearly enough details and time spent with the older Penderwick sisters I know and love. I like Batty, but her character just felt rather distant.

Back to the plot again. Mrs. Tifton shows up and gets all upset because the Penderwicks are back destroying her property. Then Wesley shows up because he’s jealous of Jeffrey. But it all comes to nothing. The worst part? When Skye sees Jeffrey for the first time in forever they don’t interact! What happened? What did I miss?

The story wraps up and we don’t even get to see the wedding!!!

Now let me talk about some of the pros of this story. Because there were parts I enjoyed.

Pros:
Lydia was delightful. I liked getting to know the youngest Penderwick.
Ben was funny and likeable. He reminds me of my own brother. His obsession with making movies was humorous and it was fun to read about his take on life.
Alice was hilarious. I believe she was my favorite part of this book. Her personality was delightfully stubborn, fierce, and exuberant. Some parts made me laugh out loud.
Wesley- Batty’s love interest was perfect for her. But then Birdsall got rid of him! GOT RID OF HIM! WHY?!! He was perfect for her! An artists, quiet, with subtle yet endearing mannerisms. By the end of the story I was disappointed that he was being removed so completely from the story.
Jane was goofy and as random and distracted as ever. I love her, she’s probably one of my favorite characters.

Cons:
Skye and Jeffrey don’t get married.
Jeffrey and Batty are thrown together.
We don’t see the wedding!!!
The characters felt distant.
I didn’t get to see enough of the original Penderwicks.
I feel so unsatisfied.

-Last Words-
Why Birdsall why??!! This is a sad sad day for the honest avocado. Who needs to buy table salt as a seasoning? Today I’m going to salt my guacamole with my own tears.

Like this review? Read more of my unfettered opinions of books at my blog! Find it here at honestavocado.wordpress.com

[Tirzah Eleora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this book! I’ve been waiting for a worthy finale to this series since I read ‘The Penderwicks in Spring’ shortly after it was published and it proved to be one of the only books that’s ever made me tear up.

These hopes have been crushed. This book was anything but a worthy finale...it was worse than bad; it was mediocre. It was flat and boring, and had very little of the touching whimsy of it’s forerunners. And despite the fact that it’s a book about the Penderwicks, we don’t see much of the greater part of the family.

Warning: lots of spoilers and complaining ahead.

The biggest issue with this book is obvious; why didn’t Skye and Jeffery get married and who the heck is this Czech dude?? Skye and Dusek should not have happened! Is anyone happy about this? I’m not an author personally, but if I were, I don’t see why I would spend four books developing a relationship history between two of my characters only to completely chuck this entire storyline in the fifth and final book and have the girl marry some random guy. Why?? Not only was Dusek random, Birdsall doesn’t bother to tell us a single thing about him, he only shows up in one scene in the whole book to say something in Czech to Skye, and on top of this Birdsall doesn’t even bother to make Skye seem very in love with him. She only marries him because Rosalind is already getting married and the wedding planning is being done by her...doesn’t that make it a marriage of convenience of a kind? Just...NO THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED.

Skye and Jeffery. They were meant to be. *sobs*

My second biggest qualm with this book was the absence of the older Penderwicks, and the amount of time that was instead wasted on irrelevancies. As Lydia is the main character of course it’s natural that the focus should be more heavily on the children, but a huge amount of this book was spent describing Lydia and Alice playing in fields and talking to a sheep. It was redundant and wasteful of time that could have been spent including other characters.

Also, Too. Many. Dogs. Seriously, so much of this book was just relating what various dogs were doing and talking about how great they are. At one point, several pages were spent describing a dog watching a chicken..... words cannot describe how frustrating it is to wait for years for a book only to get it and find it’s comprised of things like a Great Dane watching chickens. This does not count as a plot.

Speaking of plots, there isn’t one. Lydia and Batty go to Arundel to prepare for Rosalind’s wedding. We mostly just see Lydia and Alice playing. Ben goes around filming things. Batty’s ex-boyfriend randomly shows up and leaves again a few chapters later. Alice and her absent brother Jack text each other pictures of themselves having fun. Mrs. Tifton shows up and she and the Penderwicks get on each others nerves.... I wasn’t expecting a thriller, but I sure thought I’d get something better than this. It didn’t have much life.

And while we’re talking about Mrs. Tifton, am I the only who though Jeanne Birdsall was gearing up to reconcile her with Jeffery’s dad? She’s always slinking around and making a point of avoiding him so I thought maybe she was going to do something with that...but I guess not. Honestly, I’m not sure what the point of bringing Mrs. Tifton in was.

It was also very anticlimactic that the characters spend the book preparing for a wedding, and the actual event is not shown, or even talked about.

I’m very disappointed in the whole book. I know the author can do better than this; she proved it with the rest of the series. As it is, I suppose I will just have to go reread the first four and pretend this one didn’t happen, and that everyone married who they should have.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will post a real review on the blog next week. For now, some stray thoughts.

1. Philippa Nel? That is a serious deep cut children's lit shout out, Jeanne. Nice.

2. I have found that I can't talk about this book out loud without crying.

3. Whoa what's with the Skye and Jeffrey shippers having tantrums here? O_o Settle tf down.

Okay, here are some marginally more coherent thoughts:

Lydia Penderwick, now eleven years old and just as exuberant as she was as a toddler in The Penderwicks in Spring, has heard tales of Arundel all her life. Now, as the Penderwick diaspora converges for a long-awaited wedding, she gets to experience the magical estate firsthand.

18498292Jeanne Birdsall walks a tricky tightrope in The Penderwicks At Last. One one hand, she has been adamant from the beginning that this series will stay middle grade, and that each entry in the series will focus on the characters that make it a middle grade book. This will be no Anne of Green Gables, following its original protagonist well into adulthood. On the other hand, the readers of the series are devoted to the four older sisters and deeply invested in their various fates. Will Skye marry Jeffrey?! (There are apparently some people on Goodreads who feel VERY STRONGLY about this.) Will Batty marry Jeffrey? (That one has been my daughter's and my prediction since the beginning.) Will Skye become an astrophysicist?

Setting the book at Arundel is a elegant way to solve the problem. Seeing a familiar place through new eyes provides a way to balance the narrative between past and present, and a wedding is a classic narrative device for assembling the whole cast of characters. And they are indeed assembled: Aunt Claire and Turon; Alec and his new dog (RIP Hoover); gardener Cagney (now a paterfamilias). Even Mrs. Tifton is (hilariously) along for the ride.

Birdsall provides enough resolution of old tensions and strong hints about future plans to satisfy fans, while keeping the focus firmly on Lydia and her concerns. Most of the drama with the older Penderwicks sisters takes place in the background, filtered through Lydia's perspective. Meanwhile, the iconic places in Arundel are recognizable, but often changed. There are sheep in the field of the enormous bull who almost trampled Batty, and the manicured lawns have been turned into meadows where bobolinks (and eleven-year-olds) can hide.

There are new inhabitants as well - mainly Cagney's family, with whom Lydia spends most of her time - but also, oddly, Batty's ex-boyfriend and his amazing three-legged great dane. It can be a risky proposition to introduce new characters in a series finale, but the new additions are as well-drawn as the old favorites. (One minor quibble: the Kirkus review mentioned the default whiteness of the book and series, and that is certainly true, but I was more disappointed by the heteronormativity. I had really headcanoned Skye as a lesbian, and possibly on the asexual spectrum. So there, Skeffrey shippers.)

The novel is as much a meditation on time as anything else. Birdsall seems to understand that we want Arundel and the Penderwicks to stay the same forever (I honestly can't even talk about this book out loud without crying), but she won't let them remain in stasis. Like Lydia, we have to prance, leap, and gambol into the future.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started crying happy tears on the first page and didn't stop until the last.
I can understand why people are upset that Skye and Jeffrey didn't end up together, but I honestly think it was for the best. Skye has made it clear over and over again throughout the series that she does not have romantic feelings for Jeffrey, and I think that them ending up together would have required disregarding four books of development. Skye and Jeffrey didn't want the same things, and I think them being together would have felt forced and more like fan wish-fulfillment than a genuine ending. The idea of Jeffrey and Batty as a couple had never occurred to me before this book, but I actually liked how their story wrapped up, and I think they make a good match. The main thing I wanted from this book was a Rosalind and Tommy wedding. I have been rooting for them since the beginning, and even though I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the actual wedding, I was happy that it was Rosalind and Tommy getting married. Overall, I can see why people didn't like this book, but I thought it was the perfect ending to one of my favorite series

[DaNae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm finally willing to admit it's over. Finishing one of my favorite-for-all-time series is not a time to mourn, well not much. I kept making the joke that it would be tragic if I died before Birdsall got me to this point. Even though I'm mostly healthy, it was actually a fear. But here we are, and I can't be more glowing in my praise for not just this title, but the whole series. I always appreciate a project that knows where it is going and knows how to end. I can safely say that Penderwicks is the BREAKING BAD of children's lit - not the meth empire part just the tight story-telling part. I will also add that even though every thread was resolved, the story ended surging into the future.

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

GUYS ITS OVERRRR 😭
And wow this one was truly amazing but I feel as if I said that for all of them. But the fourth was still my favorite.
There needs to be more!
Too bad
Anyway I’m not writing a full review for this one so happy reading guys!

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 1 out of 5]

At last I am done with this godawful book.

I can't remember why I ever enjoyed anything about these characters and these books. And no, I couldn't care less about Skye and Jeffrey.

There is essentially NOTHING to this book. And we get hundreds of pages about that nothing. Even the wedding (the ostensible focal point) is entirely absent! All that is left is page after page of name-dropping to show how very "hip" all these people are. In music, this means Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, The Kinks, Stephen Sondheim, Glenn Miller, Roy Orbison, et al. The character of Lydia is thoroughly annoying - I lost count of how many times someone says something about her and her knee-jerk response is, "I am not!"

The dogs are everywhere. In the first book, it was fine. Now that dog is dead and we have to have not one replacement, but two - no, three - no, four - no, is it six dogs by the end? And we don't get just a dog - Birdsall has to give us a three-legged Great Dane who rides in a motorcycle sidecar wearing a crash helmet. Oh, yes, of course. Because that's how dreadful this book is. And we can't have chickens unless we name all of them after Egyptian queens (of course, remember that putting a number after something makes it soooo much funnier - Nefertiti the Seventh, just like Bobolink Meadow One and Bobolink Meadow Two). And if you want more animals, there is page after page about spiders and how Batty can't kill them and how Lydia is frightened of them. Oh, and sheep. Just on and on. Why couldn't someone have told Birdsall that she had overdone it?

There are lots of characters, probably too many. Their names, in general, are dumb: Batty was one thing when she was a child, but as a 19-year-old, I'm not buying it. Elsewhere we have Enam, Turron, Iantha, Cagney, and of course, Skye and Dušek. Because diversity, I guess. And everyone is amazingly talented and special and just the greatest. Well, except the brothers. Both Ben and Jack are painted very one-dimensionally as annoying, bossy, and competitive.

The quirk, the quirk - so much quirk. If you aren't sick of the quirky people or the quirky animals, we have for you....quirky vehicles - to no point whatsoever. We get the family van, named "Flashvan" (why? no idea), or Jane's car, which is so human-like that the driver has to talk to it and cajole it to function (we are really supposed to believe that this family which doesn't even have a nodding acquaintance with poverty must endure vehicles that are unreliable and possibly unroadworthy). It's all part of the nothingness.

Throughout the book, unrealistic stupidity abounds. It's simply not believable. Children who can't remember their childhood (Batty: "Did I wear wings?") and grown-up people who think that letting an 11-year-old choreograph a processional dance for a wedding is a good idea. What else? Oh, the family dog that is used to corner a member of the same family - really? The farcical antics of Mrs. Tifton are actually the least problematic - though even that whole subplot doesn't resolve in a satisfying way.

There is so much that I hated that I can't recall. More to come if I get flashbacks.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

9 July 2021

Birdsall does a lovely job of writing an old-fashioned sort of children's book. As wish-fulfillment for a perfectly happy childhood with the sort of family one wants to have, they're exactly right. This one has less plot and fewer adventures, but it feels true to Lydia's different sort of life. And after the catharsis of Spring going out on a high, light note feels just right.

***

6 June 2018

Aaaahhhhh. Very drawn-out sigh of satisfaction. I have just finished the fifth and final Penderwick novel. Previously I had noted how very old-fashioned the books felt: a sort of 20th-century nevertime with cars and phones and computers, but in which plot rarely if ever includes them. I mention this because it was less true in Penderwicks in Spring, and not true at all in Penderwicks at Last. No one watches tv still, but camera phones are integral.

One of the most satisfying conclusions I’ve ever read. Birdsall doesn’t try to tie up every last end, but she does suggest how the future might go. The reader is free to pick the path they like best.

A note on characterization: I like the adults Birdsall creates. She manages to keep them offstage in order for the kids to have freedom, but she does it without ever suggesting that they are neglectful. The emphasis, and the attention, and the really painstaking work goes into making the children vibrant and real and plausible. Well, okay, some of the attention goes to the critters, and oh! for fans of the dogs, this is a rich book indeed.

Heretofore I have reserved the Beloved shelf for books I have read and adored at least twice. There is no question that I will be reading the entire set again, probably many times, and that this final volume will be at least as beloved as the first, and maybe even more.

Library copy

[Melissa McShane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this. Maybe that was never going to happen. I don't know. But when you consider the time span this series covers, and that the girls who were children in the first book are getting married in this one, it's kind of a stretch to keep this a middle grade novel. Yes, the youngest Penderwick is still a child, and she's the main character, but much of the action centers on the concerns of the older ones. So about half the time I felt I was stuck between age categories and even genres, and that made for a discomfiting read.

And some of the developments just made me personally sad. I called it that Jeffrey and Batty would eventually get together, despite the age difference, so that wasn't a surprise that others saw it too. However, they're a perfect match now, and the thing about "they won't be together for many years yet" is just sad, because to me those are wasted years. But I was married young, so my perspective is different.

The charm is still there, and I liked Jeffrey's mother as a character in this one--I actually felt sorry for her. But for the most part, this is not the way I wanted to see the story end, particularly since The Penderwicks in Spring was so beautiful.

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

i like how at the end the book foreshadows something brewing between Lydia and Alice's brother because she bumped into him the same way Skye bumped into Jeffrey. Except this time there will be a Penderwick sister falling in love with a Cagney clone and actually getting him.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should be more sad that this series has come to a close, but I'm just not. I was more than happy to be reunited with my favorite family, but this finale was missing the certain spark and sense of coziness the previous books ooze. I did like Lydia as the narrator and Alice as her sidekick was a delight, but it was easy to become distracted from their story wishing for more details about the older Penderwick siblings. The conclusion was a bit too open-ended and I will never understand why there wasn't more written about the main event that the entire story revolves around. I will forever recommend this series, though, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

[mary liz]

UM GUYS. I have so many feelings and don't know how to rate this. #help

Review coming once I process this a bit more . . .

[Juny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even know what to rate this book...
"I'm not happy Bob, NOT HAPPY." -Incredibles.
Jeanne Birdsall, you have leeet mee down!
I still had hope for Skeffery in the begining but halfway through once Jeffery showed up I had lost hope basically. From then on I thought about stabbing a big old knife through the book in rage. I also felt like throwing up and thought that maybe I could rip out just the pages with Batty and Jeffery together because I did enjoy some of the other parts. Maybe the worse part about this book was it was so well done that it completely ripped my heart out.
Overall it was sort of a sad recap of the first book shown through Lydia's eyes. It still had that laugh out loud humor that I really enjoyed, though I would've enjoyed it a thousand more times if it didn't end the way that it did. I'm actually kind of mad at Skye! What is WRONG WITH HER! Also, WHAT IS WRONG WITH JEFFERY! Skye has now dropped considerably lower on my favorite list, and I'm just hoping that when I re-read the first 4 Penderwicks I can forget the atrocities that have happened in this book.
It made me really sad to see all the original Penderwicks all grown up but with the wrong people, except for Rosalind. Like when they all played soccer together happy sad moment (especially since Jeffery didn't even play later on but sat on the side lines with Batty). The last MOPS meeting, ugh, why!!!! I would rather have had this book not even have been written. The last scene with the tunnel, aghh! It was so well done, it wrapped up so nicely, in that aspect, that it just is saaaad. Also Jack and Lydia in the future probably won't get married because according to Jeanne Birdsall logic, just because two kids bump into each other in a secret tunnel in a hedge and meet each other and become best friends, literally best friends, and are so good together and everything was set up like they were going to be together....That does not mean they will get married in the future. Thanks a lot for the disappointment.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Penderwicks at Last is very competent, and goodness knows we need more competently written books. But it never jumps off the page like The Penderwicks in Spring. Maybe it's because it's less fresh: we've already jumped a few years in this series, after all. Maybe it's because Lydia doesn't feel especially unique. Maybe it's because this feels like it's checking the boxes.

This is good. It's entertaining and coherent and paced well. It's also seeped in its own nostalgia and comfortable and not especially surprising. It feels, ultimately, like the road more traveled.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a lovely ending to the series that I've loved the last couple years. We follow mainly Lydia, the youngest Penderwick, who dances her way through the story. The whole family gradually returns to Arandel where the series began, for a wedding. It was fun to see characters from previous books and I loved the celebratory feel. It did seem a bit strange that the wedding was a bit glossed over at the end, but I still enjoyed this story. I am also not an animal lover so I didn't fully appreciate all the animal scenes in this book. I didn't feel as moved as I was in other books in this series, but overall thought it was delightful and sweet. Maybe a bit too sweet?

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dearly loved all the Penderwick books and this one takes us back where it all started and launches a new generation of friendships. There are pets galore, wedding planning and more. . . Such an outstanding middle grade series!

[Naemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 Stars

To call this a book review would be sadly inaccurate because I have too many feelings to form coherent thoughts right now. So what you're going to get is rambly, somewhat incoherent gushing and thoughts that might not even make sense to people who have also read this series. But I have to talk about it! After all, this was probably my most anticipated finale since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. I even went to the trouble to buy the e-book since amazon notified me that my pre-ordered copy won't get here until May 30th. What the heck, amazon? I debated waiting, but then again, why not support one of my favorite authors by buying something that costs less than a weeks meals at university? I can easily skip some of those to make up for it...

Anyway, needless to say, I loved this book. It's probably my least favorite of the series, but that doesn't change the fact that I adored it. So here are some of my first thoughts: beware of spoilers, obviously...

- I throughly enjoyed Lydia as the focalizer of this story. She has grown so much since The Penderwicks in Spring, yet her personality still reminded me of the little girl who loved tiaras and spoke of herself in the third person. I love how she loves dancing, but hates dance classes, how she keeps trying to convince people that she does not, in fact, like everybody, and how she complains to Alice about Ben making her die in all his movies. I loved her interactions with her sisters: how she was worried that Skye would ask her about math during their phone call (which, of course, Skye did :) ), how Ben doesn't want her to spend the night with him but can be bribed into doing it with recording equipment, how she tries to stay neutral so that she doesn't hurt Batty by allowing Wesley to stay, and of course, how she bosses her family around to learn the wedding choreography. The spider incident was hilarious. Lydia is just so fun, but shows all the indignation of being treated as the youngest sibling. Iantha keeps asking if she's homesick away at Arundel, Jane won't let her listen to her conversation with Ms. Tifton... I guess that's the annoying burden of being the youngest. Lydia had such a unique, but Penderwicky personality that I can't help but admire how Jeanne Birdsall does it. Her characters are so real, so wonderful, it's just always a joy to read these books. As does the excellent writing that just conveys so well how the world looks to a child.
- Lydia's and Alice's friendship is GOALS. I loved how they tried to convince each other that it would be okay not to like each other and that they weren't really that nice because they didn't want their families forcing them to be friends. It's so great that Cagney was brought back into the story by introducing his family, it brings everything to such a full circle (also - Lydia bumping into Jack when she leaves the tunnel is just such a beautiful mirror scene to when Skye first meets Jeffrey...). Plus, reading Alice in Wonderland to a sheep doesn't sound half bad. Maybe I should try it sometime... And I'd love a secret hideout in a Bobolink Meadow. The picture wars with Jack were hilarious - I can definitely relate to sending my siblings pictures to try to make them jealous ;) (I did think, however, that there was a huge jump in the use of technology between books - I kind of wish there had been less of an emphasis). I also completely related to Alice not having any nice dresses or shoes for the wedding and hating having to go shopping instead of meeting Lydia's cousins. Finally someone who gets how terrible shopping for clothes is! I do not understand why some people list it as a hobby... I also throughly enjoyed all the scenes in which Ben, Alice, and Lydia were making their alien movie.
- Before I read this, one of my biggest fears was that Skye wouldn't end up with Jeffrey. I loved them together (even though part of my brain always said that Batty and Jeffrey had much more in common and would fit the Little Women scheme) and Skye is my absolute favorite Penderwick. I mean, she is a blond tomboy who loves math. She is one of the book characters I see myself in the most. And I still think that Skye and Jeffrey would also have made a good couple. But Dušek! Even though we didn't see that much of him, I absolutely adore him! The line "He'd come to the United States to study marine biology and found Skye studying the stars, and they'd been together ever since" (Birdsall 16) already made me fall in love. He's a scientist! And marine biology at that (I was absolutely obsessed with it during middle school..) And he loves Skye for all her nerdiness. He called her his "morning star" (Yes, I translated the Czech bits...)! Skye learnt Czech for him. The Penderwick family clearly loves him. And Skye and Jeffrey are still great friends. I loved that Jeffrey and Jane immediately challenged Skye to a soccer battle when she arrived at Arundel. The old times! (I also love how Rosalind's comment on that was "Instant regression" (Birdsall 189)). And I really love how Skye is just happy and has become a lot less hard on herself. It's also fascinating to see the way Lydia describes Skye now in comparison to how her sisters described her in the earlier books.
- Jane is on her third full-length novel! Honestly, I would read that. A detective hunting a time-traveling art forger - that sounds exciting! Though honestly, I love Jane so much I would also read every single Sabrina Starr book... Also - does anyone else think Wesley's comment at the end might be a hint that Jane wrote the Penderwicks series?
- The Oliver references were hilarious! Thank God he's become a Penderwick legend. It must be a high honor to be one of only two people ever that Lydia didn't like. Though, honestly, I would love to know more about Deborah. It's sounds like there's still such an interesting story behind this.
- This is the first book that I actually related to Ms. Tifton. Who would have thought? She just seemed so sad. I think she's come to realize what she had with Alec, which is why she doesn't want to run into him. She's to ashamed of what happened and probably the opportunities she's lost. Maybe that's why she wants to arrange everything for Jeffrey - if everything's planned out, she can spare him the heartbreak she had to go through (at least, that's what she thinks). She must be devastated about all her unhappy marriages, which is why she does try to do something to make the Penderwicks' nice. I feel almost bad that Rosalind and Skye didn't wear the veils. It's so sad how she hints at the fact that she's sad about not being invited to the wedding. I kind of wanted Jane to invite her right then and there... I also love the relationship between Ms. Tifton and Lydia. It's funny how the older Penderwicks were always so scared of Ms. Tifton and somehow that stuck, but Lydia just doesn't find her frightening. I think Lydia is starting to see how sad Ms. Tifton really is and I was kind of disappointed that we didn't see more of this storyline. And I would have loved to see her and Alec meet!
-I really like Jeffrey and Batty together. I always loved the mentor-mentee relationship they had and their shared love for music. I just never really wanted them to like each other romantically because I was always rooting for Jeffrey and Skye. But with Dušek in the picture and Skye clearly happy, I really like this relationship (although I think that scene when Jeffrey saw Batty in a dress and thought she was Rosalind bordered on being too cheesy). I just kind of wish this hadn't been left at the open ending and we really got confirmation. Like a flash-forward to another wedding, where Ms. Tifton is in the picture and Batty is wearing one of the veils? Maybe that would have been over-the-top. But still. Is there really not going to be another book? Maybe? There was so much unresolved stuff... But no, I guess I'd better not say that - look what happened the last time I wished for another book in a favorite series of mine...
- All the families were great! So many favorites now have families (like Nick, for example) and I also liked finally getting to see Marty and Enam, even if briefly. I was intrigued ever since Mr. Penderwick threatened to buy them drum sets in The Penderwicks in Spring. Who knows? Maybe Turron isn't the only influence on them being in a band...
- I feel bad for Wesley, though. He seems like such a nice guy. That story on how he rescued Hitch? Him making all those personalized mobiles and figures for the Penderwicks and Alice? He was just so adorable. And how he knew what would ultimately make Batty happy? But still, he probably got the outcome that was ultimately the right one for him, too. I hope he has an amazing life in Oregon.
- Natalie is such a cool mom. The alien costume was such a hit!
- There was one thing that I missed a little in this book, which is probably why it's not my favorite of the series: I wish there had been more of the family aspect in it. We barely got to see any of Mr. Penderwick and Iantha and not much of the older three sisters, either. I do see the point in giving Lydia her voice, since she hasn't had the chance to be a central character yet. And I do see that some of the private scenes between her older sisters wouldn't be witnessed by or pondered about by Lydia. But I wish we could have gotten to see more of the family dynamics between all the siblings and parents - I think those are the main reason I love these books so much. Since this was the final book, I really wish some of my other favorite characters had been in it more.
- There also wasn't as much drama in this book as in the other ones. Especially Skye and Jane always had a real knack for getting into problems (rescuing Jeffrey, the Aztecs, the firegod,...). Lydia didn't get into any scrapes like that, which made for a bit less excitement than in the other ones.
- The MOPS at the end was great! That had to happen one last time, even if it wasn't as secret as the Penderwicks might have hoped. And I loved the argument that the siblings had about whether Jeffrey had ever attended a MOPS before. Especially how interested the sisters were when they learned that Jeffrey and Ben had a boy MOPS once.
- Why didn't we see the actual wedding? I would have loved to - this was distancing me from the Penderwicks much too fast. I still need this family in my life! I don't know how I'm going to survive the fact that this is really the last one in the series...

Anyway, these are a few of my first thoughts. Who knows - maybe when my physical copy gets here and I've done a thorough re-read, I'll write a proper review. But for now you're stuck with this all this rambling ;)

[Grace]

Whyyyyyyyy
I can't give this a rating because, objectively, it was a nice, fun book... but subjectively.... well, let's just say that it definitely did not satisfy seven years worth of expectations.
Here's the good:
-Lydia. I liked her as a narrator much more than I expected to. She has her own unique personality that's different from any of the other Penderwick siblings and I love it!
-Alice and Lydia's friendship. Alice was another great character (Cagney's daughter!!) and her relationship with Lydia was the best.
-Batty's little spider rescue operations
-Just Cagney's whole family. His wife. His kids. All of his chickens. A+
-THE FUCKING CHICKENS. HATSHEPSUT!!
-...Mrs. Tifton. Which is weird. But she was an oddly sympathetic character in this book. Idk.
-The ending with Lydia running into Jack under the hedge :)))))
-The little callback to the first book where Lydia sees the urn and she's like "huh, I wonder if that could hide an 11 year old girl..." I see what you did there, Ms. Birdsall
-Wesley's comment at the end that lowkey implies that Jane wrote the Penderwicks series

And here's the bad (or more like, "the frustrating")...
-Having just one narrator. As a mentioned, I loved Lydia, but all of the other books had at least 2 narrators and with this once just having 1, it felt like we lost a lot of the story, since we only got Lydia's perspective
-The lack of older sisters/OG characters like Jeffrey, Tommy, Nick, Mr. Penderwick, Iantha... they're all mentioned a lot, but they don't really DO anything. Which was frustrating
-How the wedding was treated... it felt like the whole book was leading up to this huge double wedding, and then there's not even a scene with the wedding?? WTF??
-The complete and utter LACK OF RESOLUTION surrounding the Skye and Jeffrey conflict from the previous book. From what we knew before, Jeffrey was madly in love with Skye, she didn't reciprocate his feelings because she wanted to focus on her education, but they were still best friends. Now, here we are with Jeffrey being seemingly uninterested in Skye and Skye being in a committed (and then married??) relationship with some random Czech guy she started dating WHILE SHE WAS STILL IN COLLEGE (what happened to focusing on that education, Skye?). Also, there is no mention if Skye and Jeffrey are still best friends, and honestly, it doesn't seem like they are. They have about one conversation the entire book. Which is weird. And sad. And frustrating.
-A follow-up to the last one, but Skyffrey?? Where was it?? The past four books and the past seven years of my life have been very clearly leading up to the culmination of this one stupid fictional relationship and I don't even get it?? Instead, I get Skye marrying some fucking marine biologist from the Czech Republic in a spur of the moment decision (which the OG Skye would have NEVER agreed to, by the way. But more on that later) and then there's Jeffrey, soon to be in a relationship with... bATTY?? WTF WTF THAT'S SO WRONG. Even if Skye and Jeffrey weren't going to get together, why would he get together with BATTY? They clearly have a brother/sister relationship and seeing as Jeffrey first met her when she was FOUR, the whole romantic thing is, quite frankly, a bit creepy. I mean, COME ON. Even Mrs. Tifton predicted Skyffrey!!! Why! Did! It! Not! Happen!!!
-Also, Batty very clearly had feelings for Wesley?? So...???
-A LOT of the characters were very... out of character. Rosalind and Tommy publicly making out in front of young children?? Rosalind WOULD NEVER do that. NEVER. Skye blushing because Douchehead calls her his shooting star or some crap like that? SHE WOULD NEVER. Skye agreeing to A. get married with B. about two week's notice?? Listen. Skye needed a solid two months to prepare to go to Maine without her parents and Rosalind. She would never agree to get married, first of all, much less with only two weeks to prepare for it. Overall, this was probably my biggest complaint about the book- how out of character everyone seemed to be. It felt like these were new characters I had never met before, not the ones I've been reading for seven years.

Despite my issues with this book, this series will forever hold a special place in my heart. I truly feel that I wouldn't be who I am today without these books and I thank Jeanne Birdsall for creating this wonderful family.

But Skyfrrey!! Honestly!!

[Eva-Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm only rating this three stars (instead of one) because it was super well-written and I liked all the parts about Lydia and Alice and Hitch and Ben and all their adventures. But I really, really, really HATE what Jeanne Birdsall did with The Original Penderwicks (okay, not Rosalind and Jane - Tommy is awesome and writing novels is awesome).

Admittedly, it's been a while since I read the other Penderwicks books, but I know that Jeffrey and Skye were meant for each other. And then Birdsall married Skye off to this Czech guy who literally got two lines (in Czech, no less!) throughout the whole book. No personality. And Jeffrey and Batty? WUT. Wesley was perfect for Batty! UGGGGGGH. I'm really frustrated with this book.

Though Jeffrey is still golden and perfect and too precious for this world.

[steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite of the series - a bit too seeped in its own nostalgia and the difference between the older and younger siblings felt a bit too big at times. I did love Alice though and the hens and Batty saving spiders. Lydia was great too but I didn't latch onto her as I did with her siblings.

I also was a fan of Jeffrey not ending up with any of the Penderwick sisters so the fact that he and Batty were alluded to for the future was a bit of a let down for me. I wish that part wasn't in there - I have enough of a hard time wrapping my head around little Batty being grown up let alone everyone else thinking she and Jeffrey might BE A THING.

But all in all, glad I read it and I'll probably re-read again in a few years when I re-read the series.

[Verena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that I read the book the perhaps tenth time I think I can write a honest, fair and I hope last review for this book. Especially for readers in the future. Actually, I was also thinking about giving five stars....I rarely hate or love another book more. The reviews are split and I'm torn apart. Therefore, this is a special review. I'll give 13 reasons each for and against, but I will also explain this book. If you are curious and want to know, why certain, random things happened and why Birdsall really needed 3 years for it, read it. Nothing is without reason and Birdsall worked it out. She didn't do what fans wanted, but she wrote a book for herself. And she responded to literature. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
And I'll explain why Skeffrey (Skye and Jeffrey) was possible and how it had to turn out on this way.
Please be aware of a lot of spoilers.
(5+1):2=3
13 reasons for the book:
I start with the good side:

1) I do love Lydia! I hated the name because of ridiculous Lydia Bennet, but now I see a fith sister called Lydia totally different (Congratulations, Birdsall! This was your aim because minima optima est). It's now Little Women, Ben and Lydia (: Lydia was an awesome beginning in book 4, but now she's in the same age like Skye was in the very first book. Lydia is such a sweet, dancing character. 2) aw, Swan Lake (Staaaaay away love)! AND I even did try to imitate Lydia's Bolero at the Bus stop. I love the Spanish dance also from Swan Lake. Lydia is a little bit Posy from Ballet Shoes and Felicity from "Leap!". It's really hard for me to conclude a series with a favorite character who first appeared in book 4 as a baby!
3) And I loved also that my predictions for the second girl on the cover was right! It's Alice, Cagney's daughter! Her comparison with Peter Pan is very fitting.
4) The writing style is great, fluffy and quirky: We get not only summer feelings, but also the beauty of spring time ( but with a bit too much colloquial phrases). There are some references to Little Women and Pride and Prejudice, but mostly it reminds me of Noel Streatfeild. We get a bunch of talented characters: dancing,movie making, singing and writing.
5) Lydia reminded me of my favorite Disney Never- fairy Prilla, the dancy redhead on her quest for her talent. Are the references to Peter Pan and elfs coincidences? The hawk, the lily pond, Bobo meadow II?

6) And I loved Lydia and Jack (like Beth and Frank)! The only problem with full circle is that Skye and Jeffrey didn't manage to end up, and some readers are pointing out, that that's why both aren't meant to be together. But perhaps the young generation will be luckier...
7) And that Jeffrey was in Germany, was quite funny for me because I know it very well (:, and I liked the reference to Dresden, this beautiful city, the jazz center worldwide, was quite delighting because I like this place.
8) The mentioned literature references (Thank you,Lydia and Wesley don't have to die! How lucky that the Alcott actresses like stage deaths!)
9) Sleeping Beauty. Look for the fairy scenes, for love on first sight, for the witch, the vision,the dragon, the raven, the owl and the lilac fairy.
10) Wesley and Hitch remind me of a shortstory by Martha Schlinkert.
11) the sheep and the dog (ok, if I'll go for a walk, I realize it)
12) Greek gods and Egyptian Queens, Latin sentences (with only one grammar mistake)
13)flowers and raspberry bushes
What could I say more? If this would be standalone, gosh, this would be my favorite book. I can't explain it.

The main problem is that I did reread as countdown all the books and I even tried to figure out future events. I created two quizzes just for the characters (and only a few would reappear in this book!!) and a new one for the last book. Exactly, the ones with the highest hopes were the most disappointed. And I was very, very open-minded for each ship. Worst case happened!

13 reasons against. Yes, there are too many flaws and I hated all these points.

1)First, it feels like a sequel or a standalone book. We rarely see our favorite characters. Too less, indeed. Especially Skye, who seemed to get excluded just to open the stage for Batty. They are suddenly side characters with a fate of side characters. There are new leading characters. And one character was a shock! We get to know Wesley, Batty's ex-boyfriend. Can you imagine that? If Batty was still the super-shy girl, treasuring only Jeffrey in her heart..I could understand at least. I liked Wesley and I wished he could stay and get together with Batty again or with Jane. I was actually sad for him because he was introduced as such a likeable character. My major problem is a bit of ( 9- years) gap between now and the last book. Apparently, a lot happened and I wished to witness the growth. Is it coincidence that Birdsall only refers to Jill, and not anymore to the Pevensies from Narnia like in the previous books? It was just OMG and WTF. Please, Birdsall, how do you dare to skip? I'm not sure if Rosy fits to urban farming.
2)Birdsall you can't start a book with Skye thinking about marrying a Czech guy called Dusek (I just remember it as a family name, which confused me. Skye calls him Dusku - so it's Dùsko Dusék- what a weird reference to Laurie Laurence). It's such a sweet idea having a marine biologist as a love interest for an astrophysician. He calls her star of the sea ( in Czech, so I had to translate). In Backfisch literature I can understand, but we don't see here the growth! His only appearance is heard talking on Czech, and in comparison to all Penderwicks boys, he has no character. And with him one of the main characters is ending up together? He is a ghost lover and reminds me of this creepy Czech guy from "Panna a netvor".
Honestly, Birdsall, you never mentioned Jeffrey's love for Skye or their shared memories at Arundel. I shipped Skeffrey because of some reasons, but I couldn't demand it. But I wished Skye and Jeffrey would clear it then more. I am still thinking that there was a little open gate after book 4 for a possible wedding for Skye and Jeffrey. Otherwise there weren't so many fans waiting exited for this happening in the very last book and it's quite a shame that Birdsall handled this issue as if there would have never been a slightest thought of it. Read Point Mouette, chapter 16, and then you feel Skeffrey. Birdsall, I know you tried to explain, but you can't hide the past! And if you really put Jeffrey's interest in Skye into the series because fans were talking about their wedding, well, this was fail. You even increased the shipping with Skye's flimsy excuses.
3) And poor Jane - I always considered her as a girl longing for love and beauty, seems to be a suffragette/feminist spinster. Jane was always my favorite character and I spent the time waiting for the book, with thinking about the best match for Jane. Truly, I have been expecting for years that Jane and Jeffrey would get together, but I was ready to accept Skeffrey. See, if even I shipped Skeffrey, then there must have been a reason to assume it! I wished there would be the slightest hope for Jane, but Nick is married and Artie (!) + Pearson aren't mentioned. I'm just wondering if I may hope for Jane and Wesley. I really like Wesley and he's an artist. Jane calls him adorable and writes a romace with a painter in the end. Then Wesley would return and perhaps be Teddy for this sweet Emily Starr (I got the references to Emily of New Moon!). I accept Batty as vegetarian, but why Jane? Is this a reference that Jane is Jeanne Birdsall? And Jane will be married to her husband William Diehl? Or is she Alcott or Austen, who didn't marry indeed?
I'm sooooo confused.
4) There isn't the tiniest walk-through for all our beloved side characters. Many characters, like Anna or Pearson dropped out, and we never again get something about them. Only Arundel is recalled, but other memories seem to be gone with the wind. Nick and Tommy appear in the end, but only so less that it was aching. I consider it as very bold to make Churchie move to Hawaii (hey, her grandchildren were used to live in Boston! Why Hawaii? Just to get sure that Churchie has no chance to appear at the wedding? A rarely stupid solution!).
5)Birdsall writes only that Mrs. Tifton thinks that Skye was crushing on Jeffrey, but Jeffrey's crush on Skye wasn't mentioned. Birdsall, don't try to make us forget what happened!
!!!! Alice says that her father Cagney told her that Batty kept talking about marrying Jeffrey at Arundel. First, Batty said that only once in the first book and only the original Penderwicks could know that secret. Neither Jeffrey nor Cagney could know it. The whole rescue activity wasn't mentioned again as background.
Alice shows Lydia the famous hole in the hedge and tells Lydia about Jeffrey's crash with Skye. OK, perhaps Jeffrey has told her.
Skye tells Lydia that Rosalind had crushed Cagney, when Skye and Rosalind arrive. Has Rosalind really told her sisters? And why would Skye tell?
6)The nicknames Lyds and Bats are completely new and I couldn't get used to them.
7)In the end, I got the feeling that Birdsall wanted that Beth and Laurie get together and take over Plumfield. Of course, the Penderwicks aren't Little Women, but whoever says that Batty is Amy - I don't believe it. And Jeffrey was for me more a perfect mixture of Laurie and Bhaer, perfect for tomboy Skye. The interaction between Batty and Laurie was for me the friendship between Beth and Mr. (James) Laurence.
My idea was actually, that this last book isn't too close to Little Women because for me, Batty is not Amy, but Beth (Battymouse could refer to Beth's nickname "Mouse", shyness, animals, music, mourns a pet, a kind of "sickness", and also the sweet interaction with someone older...). Of course, there are references to Amy...but this is only because she's the youngest sister.
For me, Jane is also Jo ( funny, messy writer), and Skye is Amy (ambitious, neat). Skye is the tomboy of the family, and Jane is girlish, but this is the only change. Actually, the Jeffrey-Jane-Skye-relationship was for me Laurie-Jo-Amy because Skye and Laurie didn't like each other in the beginning, but Jane and Laurie were soon buddies. And because Jo thinks in Little Women that Beth would be in love with Laurie (Tender trouble) I thought that the Batty-foreshadowing would be a clever reference. But in this book all girls felt like Amy: Skye as the sister who travels and finds a match abroad (Surprises), Jo as the sister loving art (since when is Jane interested in artists like Degas or Rubens?), Batty as the sister who gets the boy (Learning to forget). Actually, Birdsall recycled Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. This very last Penderwicks book is not really Pride and Prejudice (just one tiny quote in "Pins and threats") and also not Little Women part 2 (I think I mentioned it), but mostly also similar to (at least) six chapters from Jo's boys (the final book of Alcott's Little Women series): Josie plays mermaid (8, the essential inspiration of mobiles, rocks, acted death scenes and embodiments;), The worm turns (9, dealing with the "keep talking into marriage"), the double wedding from 19 and 20, Aslauga's knight (21) and Positively Last Appearance (22)- well, I guess this was inspiration for poor Wesley. Whoever thinks it would be only Little Women and thinks that would be the reason: It's not. Birdsall made Jane here a tomboy (rather than Skye!), and Batty and Lydia are the same character, Bess.

Were Skye and Jeffrey ever possible? In Alcott and Austen manner, of course!!
a) Skye had just flimsy excuses for rejecting Jeffrey: she wants to study first, she doesn't want to lose a friend, she is afraid of becoming a mother, and she can't change her brain (heart would be matter for love!). And Skye seemed to enjoy music in the previous books (apart from opera, but I never saw Jeffrey liking opera).
b) And the Swan princess story: Odette rejects Derek because he only says that he loves her for being beautiful. She later accepts when Derek told her how smart and brave she is. And I considered this the very problem and solution for Skeffrey.
c) And also according to Pride and Prejudice would be sensible: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia could be seen easily as our 5 Penderwicks. And even Sense and Sensibility with Elinor for Skye and Marianne for Jane would fit very well.
d) And don't forget that Skye and Jeffrey would easily be also Amy and Laurie since Skye is blond, calculating and a snow maiden, but also Jo and Bhaer. Don't forget that Jeffrey is far different from Italian, hot-headed Laurie. Laurie could have been Pearson!
I really don't understand why Birdsall didn't learn from great classics, but decided for the easiest solution. In fact, as a youngest sister she would rather preferences Lydia than Lizzy!
8)Some flaws are also that it isn't as bright and cozy as the previous books. It's actually darker although Lydia is very optimistic. I wished it would be a sequel. Arundel isn't the same. Yes, the estate is like a spooky,eerie enchanted castle. It's certainly not Plumfield, but the mansion of Emily's quest. Do you remember when Batty (her nick name means little bat) was playing vampire and shouting blood!? Or Jane's play with the innocent blood? Birdsall seems to like horror. Blood is a little bit mentioned here again, but the more confusing point is one part with the imagined fate of Mrs. Tifton's ex-husbands and a certain ax. And Ben is making only movies with death scenes - poor alien!
9) And it's too much about mobile phones. Actually, there is no chapter, no character without. Birdsall used it for effects, but why not having our old characters at the place?
10)And too many animals. Sorry, but what I can I expect from an author of " My favorite pets"? A child reading to sheep, of course! On the cover shouldn't be only one dog, but six ones, a sheep, chicken and spiders. It's Batty's story. And actually Birdsall's. The mentioning of birdcalls could be- as the books itself- a very long self-honouring of herself.

11) And I didn't catch the wedding itself and it seemed to be omitted. The wedding and the dancing was quite lame. It should be happier with more familiar faces, and not only some random Czech guests from Camp Laurence. And Birdsall should have written at least that Batty and Jeffrey would declare their love and kiss (not marrying is okay). I like the names Elizabeth and Jeffrey together (I know also Geoffrey and Elizabeth from "A knight's vengeance", but I won't recommend it for younger readers) and I understand that they are sugary-sweet, light and butterfly together. It's somehow a Beth-Laurie-ship. They're soulmates and have a music bound. But why the big sacrifice if Batty and Jeffrey aren't able to make it clearer? If Birdsall wanted a true open end, she shouldn't have forced Skye into marriage (just to make sure that Skeffrey is the only thing that mustn't happen). And please, I want hints for Jane!

12)There won't be a sixth book. Forget it!The Penderwicks are a clever series beginning with Arundel, then Gardam Street, then Point Mouette, then Gardam Street, finally Arundel. 5 books, 5 sisters and Birdsall tried to give everyone a similar space to narrate. he Penderwicks at last is about Lydia. The end.

I give one star because it's for me a sequel and not a satisfying conclusion. The characters are different or unfamiliar - and it's a new tale.
Yes, it feels like a fairy tale, like Sleeping Beauty (it's mentioned at least), with a 7 years age-gap between the young "couple", some good fairies (Lydia! No, Philippa! No, Lydia!) and a wicked witch. It should be happy, with all the characters dancing and singing all the time like in a Disney movie, but then please without the skipped wedding and without open end. And it reminded me in the end more of Lalaland. A lulling, luring feel-good- musical, until you realize that it wasn't a happy end. The hero (Jeffrey) is a jazz pianist, the heroine (Skye) marries a random man because of course, it shouldn't work in reality.

13)It's very odd to jump from character to youngest character in a series about growing-up characters. I don't mind the new point of views, but I missed the old ones.

Summing up, the Penderwicks series is a beautiful series, inspired by Little Women. It started again retelling Little Women, giving us similar emotion and finishing like the official sequels to Little Women, and has a realistic drop-out of charcters in this 15 years(like in Little Women, drop out). It's more like "Sarah, plain and tall" an old-fashioned series.

For me, Jeanne Birdsall showed that she is a children's book author who connects a lot of famous tropes and quotes, but she failed in understanding young adults. And look how many children reviewed the book...
But why did it happen? Why did Batty and Jeffrey get together? She is playing with Alcott, Austen and Shakespeare, and some other references I couldn't recognize, but also responding and recycling. Each Penderwick book will find the way in the long hall of children classics, such as The Secret Garden, Pollyanna or Heidi. And yes, with a close look you'll find all the beloved children classics in it (think of the robin or just of the little kitten (:). I loved her characters, but the last two books should have been standalone books. The Penderwicks are a truly special series, but for me, it was just too broken and jumpy to find a connection for the books. If you have 5 stories with the same main character (Batty) and mix it together to a chronological series, well, that Birdsall did.

Search Wesley and Hitch, and Charlene, in "Rose in Bloom" and you'll be glad about this happy end.
Batty and Jeffrey remind me a lot of Emily and Dean from the Emily of New Moon triology (especially Emily's quest). It's the claiming of the soul and the same friendship, the looks, and also the keeping of something, a purple flower (has anyone counted the purple flowers so far?), the goodbye for now vs. at last, and here now the spooky mansion and the fight (not Pride and Prejudice!), the gorgeous return and the adorable arist. Batty and Jeffrey had always the ending together, Batty's "fault" was finding Arundel, the honorable brother, even Iantha. Batty is Birdsall. All the sisters, the oldest one, the emotional writer (Emily Starr!) and the clever tomboy, did exist for Batty. Without this idea, the Penderwicks wouldn't exist. This we have to accept.
There are the featherdusters and statues from the Enchanted Castle, the redhead from Ballet Shoes, with references to Narnia, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz (the red shoe?), and similarities to Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables (I guess it's Alice's names), Pollyanna , The Secret Garden, The Treasure Seekers, and Heidi. A musical book where my inner voice hums the Shuyler sisters, Somewhere over the rainbow and Once upon a dream. If you like such a mixture (no one dies!), then take this as the classic of classics. It's quirky, but not bright and lacks old characters. Although a lot is recycled, we don't get many memories. It's a conclusion like Alcott would have written it.

A last word: This book makes me think that all previous Penderwicks books were just a very long introduction to Lydia's tale. If the Penderwicks had not gone to Arundel, Mr. Penderwick had not married Iantha, and Lydia had not been born, we would have not her as protagonist. Perhaps I had different expectations and Birdsall did many surprising things. But actually, Birdsall could also have a weak memory...As a standalone, I would give 5 stars, perhaps, but still be sad for Wesley. But reading the previous books, a certain character would be missing.
I recommend it only for Lydia's sake!

[Leonard Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than Harry Potter in years past, a new Penderwicks is pretty much the only book I have to have on release day and will stay up reading for, through hell and highwater (and a bleary next day at work), until I’ve finished it. I love these books something fierce, but as much as I love them I never thought any of the first four were flawless. Well I loved this one too, and I think it was perfect, which is a little strange as everything turned out exactly the way I expected—no surprises here—and maybe certain fans will bemoan the lack of screen time for some characters who were central to their loving the early books, but personally I think Birdsall made the right decisions to make this a series of novels, maybe five of them, for the ages.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Penderwick family returns in this fifth and final installment of their adventures, opening some nine years or so after the conclusion of the fourth title, The Penderwicks in Spring . The wedding of Rosalind and Tommy Geiger is in the offing, and the action soon shifts from the Penderwick home on Gardam Street to Arundel, Jeffrey's palatial estate in the Berkshires, that served as the setting for the first book in the series. Our narrator is Lydia, a two-year-old in the previous book, and the story focuses on her experiences at Arundel: befriending Cagney's daughter Alice, exploring the grounds, and bidding a sad goodbye to Batty's erstwhile boyfriend and his three-legged Great Dane. Never still for long, Lydia is drafted to choreograph the dancing walk that the sisters (Skye having decided to become a bride as well) will take in the wedding procession...

Such is my fondness for these characters, that although I am constrained to admit that The Penderwicks at Last is the weakest of the five books, I nevertheless enjoyed reading it. Unlike many other fans, I wasn't at all bothered by the manner in which Jeanne Birdsall handled the question of who ended up with who, romantically speaking, nor was I upset that the four original Penderwicks were now adults. After all, these books are modeled on classic children's literature, and vintage girls' series, from Betsy-Tacy to Anne of Green Gables , often follow their heroines from their young childhoods through their married years. I think the main weakness here is that Lydia just isn't that interesting of a character, at least for me. Somehow, she never felt fully realized, in the way that her elder siblings did in previous books. Unfortunately, since the tale is told from her perspective, the other Penderwicks don't come through that strongly either. I was also greatly disappointed that, after all the build-up, both here and in previous titles, we don't get to see Rosalind and Tommy tie the knot. That was a real let down.

As mentioned, I enjoyed this one, and found it pleasant enough, but it wasn't what I would describe as a strong finish to the series.

[Vikki VanSickle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was a bittersweet experience. Sweet, because it's The Penderwicks and therefore automatically a wonderful read, and bitter, because it's the last book in the series and I'm never ready to say goodbye to The Penderwicks. The book centres around Lydia, who is now a tween, and visiting the fabled Arundel for the first time on the occasion on Rosalind's wedding (!!!) It is a tad surreal to have the original Penderwicks range in age from 19-30, but Lydia and Alice are wonderfully-drawn, endearing characters all on their own and carry the story well. I am very sorry that this series is ending, but so grateful to have known and loved The Penderwicks.

[Digne]

It's still two years away! ... But I need it now!

I started reading the Penderwicks series in 2009 (the first book was published in 2005) and the long wait between books has always been a struggle!

[Kathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigh...what a wonderful end to one of my all-time favorites series. It's charming, heartwarming, and the perfect way to wrap up the tales of the Penderwicks family. Jeanne Birdsall is truly a master storyteller, and if you haven't read this series yet, it's definitely time to try it.