Penrod Jashber [Hardcover]

Booth Tarkington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1983

A boy named Penrod and his friends decide to start their own detective agency with hilarious results.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (August 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899661807
• ISBN-13: 978-0899661803
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,537,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Last of the Penrod Series, September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Penrod Jashber (Hardcover)

The finale in the Penrod series. Not as funny as the previous two books, but good for a few chuckles. The title comes from Penrod's ambition to become a detective -- naming himself George Jashber. He and the neighborhood boys decide to "shadow" a stranger in town -- suspecting danger. However, nothing could be further from the truth, however the adventures of the boys are thus chronicled.

The stories were pretty good and it was entertaining. The cultural elements of being a boy in the 1910's are captured perfectly. It is a shame that this series ended here.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny stuff, October 8, 2002

By 

Brenda (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penrod Jashber (Hardcover)

I read this book, along with Penrod, and Penrod and Sam, to my two younger brothers, ages 13 and 11. They loved all of them! they thought these books were hilarious, and they still talk about them every once in awhile. There are a lot of big words, and the way Tarkington says stuff is old-fashioned, but that makes it all the more interesting, and at times, all the more funny.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Penrod Jashber--the best of the series of three Penrods, March 5, 2010

By 

Whetstone Guy (Montgomery Village, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penrod Jashber (Paperback)

Unlike the other reviewers, I thought this book was the best of the Penrod trilogy. I read the trilogy from a compilation of the three individual books. The compilation is a slightly amended version of each of the individual books, according to Booth Tarkington.

The thrust of the book is that Penrod imagines himself to be a detective and employs his three friends to help him shadow a bad person, in Penrod's eleven year old mind. I laughed that Penrod and his friends caused a suitor of Penrod's sister to leave town. This occurred because Penrod and his friends continuously followed the suitor, who was merely a young man trying to settle in a new town. And sister Margaret's other suitor and neighbor, Robert Williams, was rewarding this effort through his brother Sam, Penrod's best friend.

There are parts of Penrod's personality, not necessarily tied to youngsters, I did not like. Penrod always had to be "on top" unlike his friend Sam. Penrod cajoled and argued with his friends to get what he wanted. This eventually wore on me.

The book is offensive when Penrod calls one of his black friends the "N" word when Penrod is angry. I do not know if using the "N" word was offensive in the 1910's and 1920s. However, because the word was shouted in anger, I suspect the term was meant to be derogatory.

I note that Penrod's parents, a happily married couple in their forties, had separate bedrooms. I wonder if that is how middle class or upper middle class married couples lived in those days. The author casually provided this sleeping arrangement when Penrod stated his father retired to his own bedroom and Penrod's mother was calling to her husband through the door and transom above.

The book has a happy ending, which I will not divulge.