Penrod Books in Order

The Penrod books are Booth Tarkington's funny, affectionate take on boyhood in a small Midwestern city before World War I. The series follows Penrod Schofield, usually around eleven, as he blunders through school, family life, neighborhood rivalries, amateur performances, secret clubs, and grand personal humiliations. The books are Penrod, Penrod and Sam, and Penrod Jashber.

Penrod is not a saintly child and that is the point. He is imaginative, theatrical, stubborn, vain, loyal, and forever getting into trouble. He wants freedom, admiration, and excitement, often all at once. Adults usually see noise, dirt, and nonsense. Penrod sees urgent matters of honor and destiny.

Nothing is small when you are eleven.

A lot of the life of the series comes from Penrod's friendship with Sam Williams. Together they are bold enough to attempt almost anything and wise enough to regret it only afterward. Their schemes are often ridiculous, but Tarkington treats the emotions underneath them seriously. Shame at school, jealousy over friends, first interest in girls, fear of looking foolish, and the need to save face all matter enormously here.

The first two books are the most episodic. Penrod works almost like a chain of comic set pieces, each one catching a new disaster or triumph. Penrod and Sam keeps that same loose, lively feeling while deepening the friendship at the center. These are books you read as much for voice and incident as for plot.

Penrod Jashber changes the rhythm a bit. It is still recognizably a Penrod book, but more of it hangs together as one larger adventure, with Penrod pretending to be the detective George B. Jashber. That gives the last volume a slightly more novel-like shape while keeping the same mix of swagger, confusion, and comic fallout.

What makes the series last is not just the mischief. Tarkington is very good on the scale of childhood feeling. He knows how huge a classroom embarrassment can seem, how quickly a small lie grows teeth, and how a boy can feel noble and ridiculous in the same minute. The setting matters too. The porches, yards, alleys, schools, and family dining rooms make a whole social world, one where children are watched closely but still manage to make a surprising amount of trouble.

If you want Tarkington at his warmest and most playful, start here. Read the books in order if you can. You will get the fullest version of Penrod's world, and of the comic seriousness with which he moves through it.