The Corner House Girls at School

Four sisters, one house, and a goat named Billy Bumps who upends everything. The Kenway sisters Ruth, Agnes, Tess, and Dot have just moved to the old Corner House, and the excitement of a new school year crackles through their pages like electricity. Agnes, with her quick wit and love of big words,Translate from the Greek, would likely say something clever about the white-haired boy Neale O'Neil who seems to carry shadows in his past. When Sam Pinkney shows up with Billy Bumps tied to the woodshed, the household erupts into debate, with young Dot defending her new friend Allie Neuman and Agnes loftily declaring the situation allegorical. This is early twentieth-century children's fiction at its finest: warm without being saccharine, funny without condescension, and genuinely interested in how children negotiate the complicated business of growing up, making friends, and finding your place in a new world. The Kenway sisters are vivid, distinct, and utterly believable.