I understand that this children's novel is based in part on the author's childhood, and it's a likeable enough read although very old-fashioned. In a way it's kind of sweet, that all these sisters get so excited about going to the beach or the library, or that chapters can be constructed of them choosing which sweets to spend their penny of pocket money on - a very gentle story, told with kindness. What saves it from being honestly a little dull is that the family is Jewish, and details of their religious celebrations and customs are interwoven into the text. I don't know a great deal about Judaism, so a lot of this was new and interesting to me, and I enjoyed learning about the culture these kids were living in. Admittedly, given that this book is aimed at very young children the exploration of that culture is not particularly in-depth, but there's enough here to give a real sense of what their lives were like.