The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, by Jeanne Birdsall

** spoiler alert ** The opening paragraph brought me such a feeling of homecoming and comfort and nostalgia; I had forgotten how much I love the Penderwicks. Out of the three books, this was my favorite. I liked the setting (vacation home on the coast of Maine), the various sub-plots (Jane's romance, Skye's fear of being the OAP, Aunt Claire's sprained ankle,etc.), and the overarching theme of Jeffrey finding his father.

As to the revelation of Alec as Jeffrey's father, I thought it was very realistically executed. Sometimes in these types of stories, when the long-lost parent turns out to be the perfect match, everything resolves itself too easily and quickly. In this case though, even though the long-lost parent was just who Jeffrey wanted him to be, there were still very real feelings of anger, loss, betrayal, and heartache. Some of my complaints with the first two books revolved around this lack of realism in the climactic scene. But I have no such complaints with this book. It was very well done.

There were also some very funny lines that brought me to audible laughs. (My personal favorite? When Mercedes is careening down the hill on her bike, and Dominique says, "My sister might run into you," and Jane is trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind "My sister might run into you.")

And who absolutely loves the cover of this book? Me! It's my favorite cover out of the three books also.

I haven't heard if there will be any more stories about the Penderwicks, but if this is the last one I'll be so sad. The characters are too good. Even if it is the end, I'm looking forward to reliving these fun stories with my children.

(P.S. As an additional note, I listened to the audio of this one, as well as the first two, and while I liked it overall, there were some voices, particularly of the male variety, that I didn't love. Just another reason why I'll want to re-read these someday.)

This review was written before the birth of this blog.