Richard Peck is one of those classic writers who have been around the entire time I've been a reader. Mom gave me the Blossom Culp series when I was a kid and I loved it. I think I even read a couple of them more than once. It had the perfect mix of history (which I was fascinated with) and that prickly factor of fear. I missed a few of his between then and his fab Chicago Duo, but once I read A Long Way From Chicago I was a fan reborn. I've read each of his books since then, and none, IMHO, have come close to matching the sparkling fun of those two books. Here Lies the Librarian comes darn close.
From the get go we meet Peck's trademark quirky characters as they scramble for cover from a tornado. When the dust settles and we find out that the twister tore up the graveyard, oh, it is a scene to behold. Peck has a way of capturing the tragicomic. As for summaries, well, that's not really what some Peck novels are about are they? I'll give it my best... 1914. Peewee has grown up under the attention of only her mechanic brother, so it's no surprise that when Irene Ridpath, Library Student, comes to town she mistakes the 14-year-old for a boy. That all and more changes when the future librarian sets her eyes on the rundown, closed library in Eleanor's small Indiana town.
My only issue come with the fact that we never hear what happens to one of our main characters. I was attached, and felt unresolved. But you know, sometimes we just don't know how other people's stories turn out.
This would be a great family read.
2 comments:
Have you read his Amanda Miranda? It's about the Titanic, has non-related lookalikes and a romance -- not his usual, but wicked fun in a sort of trashy way.
(Well, as trashy as Richard Peck can get, anyway.)
I have actually. I found it in the adult section a few years back and simply had to read a Peck with such a tawdry cover. It was indeed as fun as you said!
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