When I was very young, I read Ten Kids, No Pets and thought it was a lot of fun. I always d stories about big families. I just discovered it had a sequel and read it in a day.

It’s pretty short; each kid gets a chapter. The family spends the summer in a beach house. The events are all pretty minor for an adult reader. It’s pretty juvenile for the most part. But it’s still cute and fun.

Clean content.2020-books drama-romance-contemporary7 s Katie FitzgeraldAuthor 6 books214

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

Eleven Kids, One Summer is the sequel to one of my favorite books from childhood, Ten Kids No Pets. Looking back, I remember the first book as the better of the two, but reading them both again as an adult, this sequel is the story that won me over. Keegan, the youngest in the Rosso family, is now six months old, and the family is taking a vacation to Fire Island, where they will stay in a beach house. As the summer passes, each of the kids has an adventure involving everything from fishermen and haunted houses to movie sets and romances.

Here’s what made me love this book:
While each of the kids has his or her own adventure, some of the adventures overlap. For example, Candy’s chapter early in the book introduces a haunted house plot that reappears in Hannah’s chapter and Hardy’s chapter in the middle and end of the book. Woody also becomes an entrepreneur in his chapter, which influences things that happen to Bainbridge later on. This interconnectedness made me feel I was living amongst the Rossos during their vacation, and even when some of the kids were not heavily featured in a chapter, the ongoing plot threads gave me an idea of where they were and what they were doing.
Justin Hart, the romantic hero in Ann M. Martin’s romance novel, Just a Summer Romance, as well as the heroine from that story, Melanie, reappear in this book. I read Just a Summer Romance when I was in ninth or tenth grade, and by then I’d forgotten the details of Eleven Kids, One Summer, so I never made the connection until now. I remember really liking those characters, though, and it was nice to check in with them.
Eleven Kids, One Summer has everything in it that I loved about the various plots of the Baby-sitters Club books- a big family, a ghost story, lots of kids of all different ages, movie stars, twins, a hospital visit and a summer vacation. The Publishers Weekly blurb on the back cover of the book says that Ann M. Martin “knows well what pleases young readers” and I would so agree with that statement. She knows how to keep the pages turning and how to create adventures out of seemingly everyday experiences.
This book reminds me of The Penderwicks series, and especially of The Penderwicks at Point Mouette. Abbie Rosso and Rosalind Penderwick are both wonderful big sisters, and the younger Rosso siblings all reminded me of Skye, Jane, and Batty at different points. Both books evoke a timeless sense of childhood innocence and the they celebrate the joys of imagination and independent play. Eleven Kids, One Summer was published 14 years ahead of the first Penderwicks book, but they both feel equally contemporary in style and content.
Eleven Kids, One Summer is a perfect example of Ann M. Martin’s talent for creating unique kids and making each different personality relatable for her readers. Reviews from when the book was published were not particularly kind - especially one from School Library Journal that said “signs of formulaic contemporary sit-com fiction are in abundance” in the book, and that “sometimes the pace and content strain credibility.” I think this book is actually heads above many of those poorly written sit-com books, and maybe not everything that happens is ly to happen in real life, but it worked well in the fiction.

Eleven Kids, One Summer is out of print, which makes me sad, but there is obviously still some love for the Rossos, since copies of their books are quite expensive (over 140 dollars!) on Amazon. I think this book brings about heavily nostalgic feelings for a lot of kids of the 90s. I know it does for me.2012 2021 audience-children ...more4 s SallyAuthor 2 books139

OMG AT LAST! I first read Ten Kids, No Pets when I was about seven, and it's taken until now to get my hands on the sequel. And you know what? Worth the wait :) A lovely dose of nostalgia for a lazy afternoon. Didn't matter that I haven't read Ten Kids in years, I guess because I read it so many times that the family were still so familiar to me.

This time they've packed up and gone on holiday to the beach for the summer. As with the last book, each kid gets their own chapter, which makes the book kind of eleven slightly-connected short stories, although I found that a few of the chapters didn't really have as much closure as I'd have d before moving onto the next sibling.

Abbie narrates the train- and ferry-rides to Fire Island, which was fun. She's fifteen now and very embarrassed by her huge family. ;) Candy thinks the house next door is haunted. Faustine goes postal on some fishermen - who are, admittedly, killing their catches rather inhumanely. Hannah plays practical jokes on everyone because she's bored. The joke she plays on Abbie is just cruel though - she tells boy wonder Justin that Abbie s him, and the next day Abbie comes home in tears because Justin's girlfriend, her friend, is mad at her. The silent treatment lasts a week, and I admit I was expecting Hannah to feel guilty and 'fess up, but she DOESN'T. Ugh. Ira gets Lyme disease and has to go to hospital. Jan, who used to be the baby, is trying all sorts of ways to get attention and ends up getting a makeover, but then she doesn't her new hair so she ends up cutting it all off, oops. Woody gets all crafty and makes some serious cash, and is generally awesome. Gardenia - Dinnie, I don't remember that nickname from the last book - decides that being an extra in Justin's movie is going to be her big break, so she's incredibly annoying in the background of the beach crowd scene until Justin has a word with the director, who gives her a tiny cameo as a dogwalker. Bainbridge meets a girl, who then has to go home, so then he chats up another girl and is so busy with her that he doesn't notice Hannah take baby Keegan off for a walk. And Hardy sets out to discover the mystery of Candy's haunted house.

I think I still the twins best, and Woody. I felt sorry for Hannah too, but she was a bit too much of a brat here for me to remain sympathetic. :Pbeach childrens-younger family ...more2 s Halida213

Wow, what an awful lot of children they have.
At first it was a little bit confusing because I hadn't read the first book about the Rossos. And since they have unusual names, it's kind of hard too to remember all their names and nicknames. I got on, though.
The thing I about this book is that every character has their own personality, although some stand out more than their siblings. I hope this doesn't sound sexist but I the boys better than the girls because they're less annoying (except for Bainbridge). And I think Abby and Bainbridge sometimes act bossy since they're the oldest ones. My favorites are Woody the artist and money-maker, Hardy the family detective, and Ira the paranoid but cute one.

This family kinda reminds me of the Pikes in Baby-sitters Club series although the Rossos have more kids. Now I'm thinking wouldn't it be exciting if the Pikes get their own series? I l-o-v-e the Pikes, and although Mal is the oldest ones she doesn't boss around and as a matter of fact is very responsible. And the other kids are so adorable :Dchildren2 s Taylor180 3 Read

Wait eleven kids? CRAZY! they even go on a vacation, are these parents insane? But they end up having so much fun! Disappearing baby, Haunted house and even a good Looking movie star! These eleven kids each do something fun on this family vacation to a beach house on the border of the beach! Evan there cat Zsa-Zsa has a blast! This book is great because it made me connect the story to my family, even though we only have 5 kids!1 Brenda520 26

I loved Ten Kids, No Pets as a kid, so I was happy to come upon this sequel at a thrift store last weekend. It was cute, but I'm not sure I would have loved it even in my younger days. It lacked the structure and plot follow-through of the original.beach kid-lit owned-real1 Johnny Bennett910 1 follower

I enjoyed this book but it won't hold the same spot in my heart as Ten Kids No Pets. It just wasn't as fun. The kids had moved from quirky characters to annoying at certain points throughout the book.1 Chelsea1,204 15

These books brought back a lot of nostalgia for me - I loved 'em when I was a kid! Especially the names...I used to get a kick out of Dagwood! What I love most about them is that each sibling has their own very distinct personality - felt real to me. Just a super fun read!1 Megan1,918

I remember wondering how the family could afford to spend the entire summer in a beach house and wishing I could go on the island adventures they had.1 Brittany S.1,720 796

This was one of my favorite books as a kid! 1990-to-1999-pub-date childhood childrens-and-mg1 Susan Bazzett-Griffith1,851 52

Another library sale find, and at only 50 cents, I grabbed it for my YA pulp fiction collection, having remembered reading and liking the first book Ten Kids, No Pets when I was a kid in love with Martin's The Babysitters Club series. I didn't know there was a sequel, but from what I remembered about the first book, I thought I may offer this one to Adam to read, since he DID the Ramona books when he was younger (not that he'd admit that). This book wasn't that good, but for kids, it's clean, kind of short stories, since the chapters are each about one of 11 different siblings' adventures during their summer vacation. I will offer it to Adam, but I'm not sure if he'll be interested. I think he may it if only to read about such a big family, the ultimate in opposite of the life of an only child. Two stars, because I don't think any of the plots were very interesting. adam-s-books ya-kid-stuff-i-love Kirsten544

This sequel to Ten Kids, No Pets is just as fun as its predecessor, if not more so. The perspective switches work even better this time around, and the adventures are more interconnected, so you get a bit more of a plot (although not much). This book made me wish my family could rent a beach house for the summer; sadly, the closest we ever came to that was a lake cottage for a week. It was also responsible for making me scared of ticks and Lyme disease as a kid, which wasn't a bad thing given how much time I spent outdoors.2018-read-it-again-sam kid-fiction owned-print Kayla409 11

I didn't even know there was a sequel to "Ten Kids, No Pets" until I found this gem at the used bookstore! The original was my favorite chapter book as a child and the second book in the series does not disappoint! The children still get into mild trouble while going about their day to day adventures but this time it occurs on vacation at a beach house. I love how each of the different chapters are written by different members of the family but how they all tie together in the end. I was very pleased that reading this so many years after the original I was still able to enjoy it so much. Mie Reads188

I enjoyed this more than Ten kids,no pets and I think it was the setting that did that. It reminded me of the BSC-books where the Pike family rent a beach house at Sea City. Still I find the fact that there are so many characters and points of vieuws a bit messy. No ones personality is well fleshed out. It was a cute and charming book, but far from the best work of this author. Lisa135 1 follower

I discovered this one at the Friends of the Library bookstore in the 50 cent section. I snagged it because it was one Ann M. Martin book I hadn't heard of. Of course, it's a kid story, but I still them.
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