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Penrod Jashber (1929) by Booth Tarkington ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I finally finished Penrod Jashber, the third and final book in Booth Tarkington’s wonderful Penrod series. I had started it before, but only got a chapter in before other reading got in the way. I picked it up again in August of this year, and though other reading got in the way (again), I kept on trucking and this morning I finished it. I feel like, in part, I was subconsiously putting it off, since I knew this last book was going to be our final goodbye to that little boy that we’d become such good friends with.

My copy of Penrod Jashber was rescued from the Zarephath Library in New Jersey over twenty years ago out of the discard bin. You can see their stamp in the picture above.

The book gets its title from Penrod’s imaginings that he is a detective and picks out a newcomer to the town to trail. Penrod is George B. Jashber, Sam plays that he is his first man Tabby, and Herman and Verman are Bill and Jim. They all trail a man, Mr. Dade, who is a very innocent adult. Penrod has seen a few too many movies, and dreams up this story that Dade is a horse-thief and is a hard-nosed criminal.

This is only part of the book, though, because the entire book is a series of incidents and shenanigans in the same vein as the other two Penrod books. The kids in the town get into a bunch of antics to entertain themselves over a summer.

These books have the same feel as the Tom Sawyer books, so have a timeless quality to them. At first glance, one might wonder why this little series of books isn’t more well known today. On a deeper glance, especially this entry, one can see why.

The characters of Herman and Verman are extremely cute and entertaining, but the racism of the time reflects heavily on the tone of the story. Herman and Verman are featured a lot more in this book than the other ones (and, I am glad, because they are really great characters!), and though, (for the most part) they are not depicted derogatorily, there is a lot that reminds us that they are not the same status as Penrod. When Herman and Verman are mentioned, I am on guard as to what might be written next.

I’m going to leave those comments above as they are. I don’t want to give the impression that this book is a bad read. Far from it. Booth Tarkington is an amazing writer, and I feel like he should be more of a household name today, as Mark Twain is. I’ve previously read Presenting Lily Mars and loved it, and look forward to reading his other works.

I was actually a little bit disappointed that the last chapter did not feature a dance or party of some kind, as the other two books ended. In fact, the last book ended in a real disaster during a party, and Penrod Jashber ends on the polar opposite.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves books that tell about summer vacation and what happens during those wonderful months when school is out and you have to find your own entertainment all day every day. These stories bring you back to that carefree time when the most important thing in the whole world was “What will play today?”

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Donnie
Donnie
4 months ago

Nice review of a really entertaining book! I love your concluding sentence. Ah yes, those were the days indeed…

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