Special Collections
Author Set: Richard Peck
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Representing Super Doll
by Richard PeckAfter being involved in the brittle superficial world of a beauty contest, a country girl appreciates even more the solid values of her Indiana farm life.
The River Between Us
by Richard PeckThe year is 1861. Civil war is imminent and Tilly Pruitt's brother, Noah, is eager to go and fight on the side of the North.
With her father long gone, Tilly, her sister, and their mother struggle to make ends meet and hold the dwindling Pruitt family together. Then one night a mysterious girl arrives on a steamboat bound for St. Louis.
Delphine is unlike anyone the small river town has even seen. Mrs. Pruitt agrees to take Delphine and her dark, silent traveling companion in as boarders.
No one in town knows what to make of the two strangers, and so the rumors fly. Is Delphine's companion a slave? Could they be spies for the South? Are the Pruitts traitors? A masterful tale of mystery and war, and a breathtaking portrait of the lifelong impact one person can have on another.
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
A Season of Gifts
by Richard PeckOne of children's literature's most memorable characters returns in this Christmastime companion to the Newbery Medal-winning A Year Down Yonder and Newbery Honor-winning A Long Way from Chicago.The eccentric, larger-than-life Grandma Dowdel is back in this heart-warming tale. Set 20 years after the events of A Year Down Yonder, it is now 1958 and a new family has moved in next door: a Methodist minister and his wife and kids. Soon Grandma Dowdel will work her particular brand of charm on all of them: ten-year-old Bob Barnhart, who is shy on courage in a town full of bullies; his two fascinating sisters; and even his parents, who are amazed to discover that the last house in town might also be the most vital.As Christmas rolls around, the Barnhart family realizes that they've found a true home, and a neighbor who gives gifts that will last a lifetime. "Pitch-perfect prose, laced with humor and poignancy, strong characterization and a clear development of the theme of gifts one person can offer make this one of Peck's best novels yet--and that's saying something."--Kirkus (starred review) "The type of down-home humor and vibrant characterizations Peck fans have come to adore re-emerge in full."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "With a storyteller's sure tone, Peck has once again created a whole world in one small Illinois town, a place where the folksy wisdom and generosity of one gruff old woman can change lives."--School Library Journal (starred review) Publishers Weekly Best Books of the YearKirkus Reviews Best Books of the YearBooklist Editors' Choice
Secrets at Sea
by Richard PeckIn the beloved tradition of The Borrowers, The Tale of Desperaux, and The Cricket in Times Square, here is an irresistible adventure story of the tiny individuals who secretly live among us humans. Helena is the oldest of four mouse siblings who live in the walls of the Cranston estate. It is 1887 when the nouveau riche Cranstons decide to take a cruise ship to England in search of a husband for their awkward older daughter. The Cranston mice stow away in the luggage . . . and so begins the time of their lives, as they meet intriguing, cosmopolitan mice onboard and take it upon themselves to help the human Cranston daughters find love. They might just find perfect futures for themselves as well!Full of laughs, near-misses, and surprise, this is Richard Peck at his best and most playful. .
Secrets of the Shopping Mall
by Richard PeckFrom the Book jacket: Eighth-graders Barnie and Teresa are sick and tired of their troubled life at home. So with only four dollars between them, they hop a bus and head for Paradise Park. But Paradise Park turns out to be a huge suburban shopping mall-not quite what they were expecting. Four dollars doesn't last long and Barnie and Teresa get stuck in the mall. They spend their days and nights in the climate-controlled consumer paradise of a large department store. But just when they think they can live there unnoticed forever, they find that even Paradise Park has its secrets. Even in the dead of night, they are not alone.... "[Peck] pokes fun, exposes hypocrisy, and treats with refreshing humor subjects too often talked to death. It's not a pretty place Mr. Peck shows us, but he makes us laugh at ourselves and wonder what is going on in the marketplaces of our society." -The New York Times Book Review "The author's deft handling of dialogue, inventive plot, and action-filled sequences make a highly engrossing and effective combination'.' -Booklist RICHARD PECK is one of the most highly acclaimed and popular writers of fiction for young people. His many award-winning novels include the Blossom Culp books The Ghost Belonged to Me, Ghosts I Have Been. The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp, and Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death, available in Yearling and Laurel-Leaf editions. Mr. Peck lives in New York City.
Strays Like Us
by Richard PeckA powerful story that speaks to the stray in all of usBest-selling author Richard Peck has created his richest work yet in this powerful story of a young girl starting over in a new place. After a lifetime of following her mother through one faceless city after another, Molly finds herself dumped on her great-aunt Fay. Though unwilling to believe her new home is anything more than a temporary stop, Molly is reluctantly drawn into a friendship with her next-door neighbor Will, a stray like herself. As the school year unfolds, Molly discovers the secrets behind the doors of the quiet town and comes to learn something important: The world is full of strays. Some just end up where they belong sooner than others. The author of more than twenty acclaimed novels for young people, Richard Peck will once again touch readers with his humor and compassion in a story that speaks to the stray in all of us.
The Teacher's Funeral
by Richard Peck"If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it," begins Richard Peck's latest novel, a book full of his signature wit and sass.
Russell Culver is fifteen in 1904, and he's raring to leave his tiny Indiana farm town for the endless sky of the Dakotas. To him, school has been nothing but a chain holding him back from his dreams. Maybe now that his teacher has passed on, they'll shut the school down entirely and leave him free to roam.
No such luck. Russell has a particularly eventful season of schooling ahead of him, led by a teacher he never could have predicted--perhaps the only teacher equipped to control the likes of him: his sister Tansy.
Despite stolen supplies, a privy fire, and more than any classroom's share of snakes, Tansy will manage to keep that school alive and maybe, just maybe, set her brother on a new, wiser course.
As he did in A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck creates a whole world of folksy, one-of-a-kind characters here--the enviable and the laughable, the adorably meek and the deliciously terrifying.
There will be no forgetting Russell, Tansy, and all the rest who populate this hilarious, shrewd, and thoroughly enchanting novel.
Those Summer Girls I Never Met
by Richard PeckDrew and Steph reluctantly take a Baltic cruise with their grandmother and have the experience of a lifetime.
Three Quarters Dead
by Richard PeckKerry is chosen by the coolest clique in school and so she thinks life has finally begun. But then it seems all over when her three friends are killed in a shocking car accident. Or are they? Only weeks after the accident, Kerry receives a text from one of the girls: We're all 3 here at my aunt's in the city. Take the 3:50 train. B there. Exhilarating, terrifying suspense is crossed with a thought-provoking examination of peer pressure in Richard Peck's return to his contemporary teen- and ghost-story roots. This is a master author's gift to the Gossip Girl/Twilight generation: his own smart, stylish, and fun take on the paranormal. .
Through a Brief Darkness
by Richard PeckForced to ask herself whether her father was indeed a criminal, Karen comes to rely on her own instincts and judgment as her situation becomes increasingly terrifying.
Unfinished Portrait of Jessica
by Richard PeckWhen Jessica's parents divorce and her father leaves, Jessica decides that the best way to punish her mother is to retreat to her room, a shrine to her glamorous traveling photographer dad.
Voices after Midnight
by Richard PeckWhy is Chad so uneasy when his California family rents a town house in New York City? Once there he hears voices--late at night, after midnight in this strange house that's at least one hundred years old. Then he finds that his younger brother, Luke, hears them, too, and even their older sister Heidi's afraid to stay in the house alone. As Chad and Luke explore the house, they begin to slip in and out of their own time, back to the winter of 1888. Are the voices they hear crying out for help? Will Chad ignore the voices or plunge into the unknown danger of one handred years before?
A Year Down Yonder
by Richard PeckRichard Peck's Newbery Medal-winning sequel to A Long Way from Chicago
Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois town were packed with enough drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she is fifteen, and faces a whole long year with Grandma, a woman well known for shaking up her neighbors-and everyone else! All Mary Alice can know for certain is this: when trying to predict how life with Grandma might turn out... better not. This wry, delightful sequel to the Newbery Honor Book A Long Way from Chicago has already taken its place among the classics of children's literature.
A Newbery Medal Winner
A New York Times Bestseller
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A Booklist Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year