the penderwicks was my favorite series to read as i grew up. i was so attached to skye, jane, rosalind and batty that reading the penderwicks at last—which is told from the perspective of their youngest sibling, lydia, 11—felt strange. lydia is a lovely character, a young girl filled with adventure and love and everything else 11-year-old girls are made of, but it was hard to have the main characters of the past four books be minor characters. lydia is kept out of a lot of the family discussions because she's 8 years younger than batty, who was only 4 in the first book, so we get to catch up with our old favorites in very minimal and confusing ways. only having lydia as a narrator was limiting, but also broke tradition because the other books normally switched narration between the four sisters. (this book has been out for years but the next part is a lil spoiler!!) while i understand people's frustration with how the romantic plot lines (which, let's be real, were very minor and not at all the point of these books) were wrapped up, i think that rosalind and skye's romantic stories represent how childhood relationships can end in all kinds of ways. the whole thing with batty and jeffery was a little uncomfortable for me because of the age difference, but in terms of who they are as adults, it honestly makes sense. also i can't remember if skye ever saw jeffery as more of a brother-type, anyways. (end spoilers) i'm glad the older sisters were given some sort of happy ending (is jane ok though?) and that lydia's ending wasn't an ending at all, but it definitely felt a little off to me. this story will always have a special place in my heart, but i don't see myself rereading this one as much as i do the others when i feel nostalgic.