The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
by Jeanne Birdsall
Published 2008 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780375840906

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Jacket Notes:

THE PENDERWICK SISTERS are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn't quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick's sister has decided it's time for him to start dating--and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan--a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It's high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/28/2008

This sequel to Birdsall's National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks, has even more charm than the original. The prologue hits the only maudlin note, flashing back to Mrs. Penderwick on her deathbed as she instructs her husband's sister, Claire, to make sure he finds love again after sufficient mourning. The Penderwick sisters-Rosalind, Jane, Skye and Batty-learn of this valediction four years later when Aunt Claire begins arranging blind dates. An emergency MOPS (Meeting of Penderwick Sisters) hatches the Save Daddy plan, in which the girls orchestrate dates so dreadful their father will see widowed life is best. Neighbors on Gardam Street include football-playing brothers Nick and Tommy (the latter plays Tracy to Rosalind's Hepburn), and two newcomers: a widowed professor and her toddler baby. Middle sisters Jane and Skye, who share a room but nothing else, steal the show by swapping homework assignments with hilariously catastrophic results. It's sheer pleasure to spend time with these exquisitely drawn characters, girls so real that readers will feel the wind through their hair as they power down the soccer field. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)

03/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-The Penderwick sisters are back. Their Aunt Claire has come for a visit, bringing with her a letter from their late mother that encourages their father to date, and an immediate crisis ensues, as the girls assume that this is the first step on the treacherous road to having a stepmother. After frantic consultation, they implement the "Save Daddy" plan, designed to set him up with perfectly dreadful women so that he will not want to date again. Numerous subplots add to the domestic drama. Skye struggles with her temper on the soccer field. Rosalind and neighbor Tommy experience a frustrated romance. Skye and Jane switch homework assignments, leading to a school performance of Jane's Aztec drama, with everyone thinking that it was penned by Skye. While the solution to the dating dilemma can be seen from the beginning, the sisters are so caught up in their drama that they can't see who's right next door. Laugh-out-loud moments abound and the humor comes naturally from the characters and situations. Especially funny is the scene in which the youngest Penderwick hides in the car hoping to spy on one of her father's dates. Like much of the book itself, this scene resolves itself in a tender moment between father and daughter. This is a book to cherish and to hold close like a warm, cuddly blanket that you draw around yourself to keep out the cold.-Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan
by Nancy Springer
Published 2008 by Philomel Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399247804

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Jacket Notes:

After Enola Holmes encounters her friend Lady Cecily hiding behind a pink fan, she realizes Cecily is in danger. Enola soon discovers Cecily is being held hostage in an orphanage and faces a forced marriage. The case has Enola running into her brother Sherlock all over London.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
by Trenton Lee Stewart
Published 2008 by Little, Brown Young Readers

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316057806

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Jacket Notes:

In this sequel to "The Mysterious Benedict Society," the fabulous foursome is back with a new mission. With the puzzles, games, and irrepressible sense of adventure of his first book, Stewart delivers a heartfelt, high-speed trip around the world. Illustrations.

05/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 5-7-What was supposed to have been a reunion with Mr. Benedict turns into trouble for the four young heroes of The Mysterious Benedict Society (Little, Brown, 2007). Mr. Benedict and his assistant Number 2 have been kidnapped by the evil Mr. Curtain while abroad, so Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance set off to rescue him, aided by a set of clues Mr. Benedict left before his abduction. Adventure and danger await the four onboard an unusual ship, at a castle in Portugal, in the Netherlands, and finally on a mysterious island, where they fall into the hands of Mr. Curtain and his henchmen. It is a combination of courage and their amazing talents that allows the youngsters to squeak out of every predicament. The action takes a while to get going in earnest as more attention is given to the worries and thoughts of the children and to their interactions with the various helpful, eccentric, or nasty adults they meet in their travels. They also learn to understand themselves and one another a little better by the end of their harrowing journey. As a result, this is not just a rip-roaring adventure with plenty of clever twists and hair's-breadth escapes, but also a warm and satisfying tale about friendship.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

Nina, the Pinta, and the Vanishing Treasure
by Jill Santopolo
Published 2008 by Orchard Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780439903523

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Jacket Notes:

Fourth-grader Alec Flint is practicing to be a super sleuth. After his dad, a local police officer, tells Alec that the Christopher Columbus exhibit has gone missing from the town museum, Alec is on the case. Illustrations.