This is a good sweet story for the whole family.
The guardian takes on 3 boarders to help with finances. The interaction between these boarders and the girls is the joy of the movie. Each girl is unique in her own way and so are the boarders.
It does have a few scenes that jump from one setting to the next and takes it's time explaining what just happened. But these are just minor flaws.
This is a nice movie - I'm not familiar with the book. However, I didn't realize that the DVD is from the 1975 production for television, as opposed to the 2007 film production. I believe both were produced by the BBC. I don't see the recent film version available at Blockbuster at this time (February 2008)