Penrod Schofield at twelve wears "an expression carefully trained to be inscrutable." This is the face presented to the adult world, and is a necessity for a boy who is part conman, part showman. Childhood is amoral, Tarkington believes. Only gradually are grownup values accepted. What Penrod, his best friend, Sam Williams, and their black allies, Herman and Verman, are really like is something most adults no longer remember. Tarkington's portraits of boys are authentic, at least within the limits his variety of realism required.

Tarkington's young girls tend to be rather prim and pretty — stock characters. Marjory Jones often tells Penrod that he is the worst boy in town. But she also regards him as her own personal Caliban. This opinion is flattering to Penrod, but he also wants more of her attention, and dreams of sensational ways of getting it.

Adults intrude on the scene...