Character sketch of penny Baxter
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Answer:
Penny Baxter is basically the best dad ever. In the world. No, seriously. He pours his whole heart and soul into making life easy and happy for Jody. What more could any kid want?
It's a Hard Knock Life
Penny has a good reason for being easy on Jody: he knows just how rough a childhood can be, thanks to his super strict dad: "His own father had been a preacher, stern as the Old Testament God. […]" (2.5). Think lots of nasty punishments and not many hugs.
His dad put them all to work so hard that "their small bones ached and their growing fingers cramped" (2.5). On top of that, there hadn't been much food to go around, so Penny's growth had been stunted, as he grew "to maturity no bigger than a boy" (2.5). You think coffee'll stunt your growth? Try starving and being worked to the bone. Even his nickname—Penny—came from Lem Forrester's taunts about his size. (His real name was Ezra Ezekiel Baxter: there's that Old Testament coming through again.)
So yeah, Penny had a rough time of it, growing up. Is it any wonder he decided to make himself a little oasis in the forest, away from other people, where he could raise his own family in peace? Where, as he put it, "The wild animals seemed less predatory to him than people he had known