The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

This was a great book to finish up the summer with. A tale of four sisters who go on vacation to a cottage in the Berkshires. It's not an ordinary summer cottage, though. It is on an estate where a boy lives with his mother. The girls befriend the boy and proceed to get in all sorts of trouble with the mother, who is trying to get her garden ready for a local Garden Club competition. The sisters have fun summer adventures, get into various messes and try to help the boy who doesn't want to go to the military school his mother and fiance want him to. All ends well and the family heads back home. The audiobook version is ably narrated by Susan Denaker. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall. Read by Susan Denaker. Listening Library, Random House, 2005.