Special Collections

The Best Man

Newbery Medalist Richard Peck tells a story of small-town life, gay marriage, and everyday heroes in this novel for fans of Gary Schmidt and Jack Gantos

Archer Magill has spent a lively five years of grade school with one eye out in search of grown-up role models. Three of the best are his grandpa, the great architect; his dad, the great vintage car customizer,; and his uncle Paul, who is just plain great. These are the three he wants to be.

Along the way he finds a fourth--Mr. McLeod, a teacher. In fact, the first male teacher in the history of the school. But now here comes middle school and puberty. Change. Archer wonders how much change has to happen before his voice does. He doesn't see too far ahead, so every day or so a startling revelation breaks over him.

Then a really big one when he's the best man at the wedding of two of his role models. But that gets ahead of the story.In pages that ripple with laughter, there's a teardrop here and there. And more than a few insights about the bewildering world of adults, made by a boy on his way to being the best man he can be.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Three Quarters Dead

Kerry 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. .

Date Added: 10/14/2019

On The Wings of Heroes

Davy Bowman’s brother and their dad hung the moon. Dad looks forward to Halloween more than a kid, and Davy’s brother, Bill, flies B-17s. Davy adores these two heroes and tries his best to follow their lead, especially now. World War II has invaded Davy’s homefront boyhood. There’s an air raid drill in the classroom, and being a kid is an endless scrap drive. Bill has joined up, breaking their dad’s heart. It’s an intense, confusing time, and one that will invite Davy to grow up in a hurry. Still, Richard Peck is a master of comedy, and even in this novel of wartime uncertainty, he infuses his tale with humor: oddballs and rascals and boyhood misadventures alongside the poignant moments. This is one of Richard Peck’s very finest novels—a tender, unforgettable portrait of the World War II homefront and a family’s love. .

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Here Lies the Librarian

Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down. Here Lies the Librarian, with its quirky characters, folksy setting, classic cars, and hilariously larger-than-life moments, is vintage Richard Peck—an offbeat, deliciously wicked comedy that is also unexpectedly moving. .

Date Added: 10/14/2019

The Teacher's Funeral

"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.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

The River Between Us

The 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

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Strays Like Us

A 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.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

London Holiday

London Holiday finds three women leading ordinary lives: Lesley is a St. Louis society woman; Julia is a successful Manhattan interior designer; and Margo, a teacher, is the divorced mother of a teenager. Best friends since their Missouri childhood, they are awakened to the realities of their often dreary existences by a shocking act of violence. Now desperate for change, the three friends escape on a trip to London and the unexpected promise of new lives awaiting them. Safe in the cozy confines of Mrs. Smith-Porter's bed-and-breakfast, the women enter a gracious new world of tea in the garden, antique markets, lush countryside, and...romance.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

The Great Interactive Dream Machine

Josh Lewis' best friend, Aaron Zimmer, has turned his computer into a wish-granting machine. It ought to be every techno-addict's dream, but there are a few bugs in the system. Nobody knows when the computer will interactivate next--and it doesn't just grant Josh and Aaron's wishes. In fact, Aaron's mom's poodle seems to eb doing some of the wishing, too. When a mysterious spy called The Watcher starts monitoring their every move in cyberspace, the real trouble begins in this compelling story from Newbery medal-winning author Richard Peck. "A guaranteed fun, faced-paced adventure. "--School Library Journal .

Date Added: 10/14/2019

The Last Safe Place on Earth

Walden Woods looks like the perfect place to be a 10th grader-especially from Todd's house on Tranquility Lane. He's even found the perfect girl, the mysterious Laurel. But when something frightens his little sister so that she has nightmares, and a parent group tries to ban "evil" books from the school libraries, Todd begins to wonder what dark forces are at work in this "ideal" community. A provocative new novel by a highly honored author that speaks to today's issues of censorship and fundamentalism.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Lost in Cyberspace

Meet Josh Lewis, a sixth grader at the elite Huckley School. When his best friend Aaron announces that he can time travel with his computer, Josh isn't fazed. But when Aaron actually microprocesses himself into cyberspace, the duo must deal with unexpected visitors from the past -- and find out more about Huckley's history than they ever wanted to know! "Amiable characters, fleet pacing, and witty,in-the-know narration will keep even the non-bookish interested. "-- Publishers Weekly .

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats

When Bambi Babcock's TV-producer father bankrupt, the Babcocks have to get out of Los Angeles ... fast. Dad heads for his hometown of Hickory Fork, which he remembers as a wholesome place for kids to grow up. But Bambi, her sister Buffie, and their little brother Brick come up against the Mall Rats, a down-home teenage gang run by scary Tanya and beef Jeeter. When the Mall Rats walk into school dives for cover. They've already trashed the mall. Bambi knows that if her show-biz family is going to get stuck here, they must turn the school around and save the town. The Mall Rats will never know what hit them.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

When 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.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Voices after Midnight

Why 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?

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Those Summer Girls I Never Met

Drew and Steph reluctantly take a Baltic cruise with their grandmother and have the experience of a lifetime.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Princess Ashley

In her new high school, where her mother has taken a job as counselor, Chelsea experiences joys and sorrows as she makes choices about new friends and learns they are not always what they seem.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

Blossom, high-school freshman and possessor of "second sight," helps an Egyptian princess, dead for 3500 years, to regain her tomb, and in addition saves a suffragette school teacher from losing her job in 1914.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Remembering the Good Times

How well do we know our best friends? They were the best of friends. Sixteen-year-old Buck Mendenhall first met Kate Lucas the summer before seventh grade. In eighth grade they made friends with the brilliant and wealthy newcomer, Trav Kirby. They didn't seem to need anyone else. Mostly they looked forward to the good times shared at Kate's house. It didn't matter if their classmates wondered about them; no one could unravel their binding ties. At least that's what they thought. When one of the trio finds the future too great a threat, the other two can only wonder: "How well did we know our best friend?" With humanity, wit, and a quiet intensity, Peck's novel depicts suicide as a turning point inward of the pressures in an alienated and violent society.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp

It's Halloween, 1914. Teenage psychic Blossom Culp sneaks into the house where the rest of her class is having a party-and that's when everything goes haywire. Suddenly Blossom is hurled into a time warp. Her psychic powers have found a way to send her into the future-our time. But will they be able to send her back?

Date Added: 10/14/2019

New York Time

Barbara and Tom struggle for equilibrium in the heart of New York's East Side, after all those years of separate bathrooms, lawn services, and orderly cocktail parties conducted in a fog of Arpege and Old Spice. Barbara rises from the ruins of her marriage to find herself and the real meaning of love, as she heads out after the life she has always wanted.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Close Enough to Touch

Through his friendship with Margaret, Matt is able to come to terms concerning the death of Dory, his girlfriend.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Amanda/Miranda

Intrigue, romance, and scheming aboard the Titanic This updated edition of the popular Richard Peck novel, available in time to commemorate the anniversary of the Titanic's fateful voyage in 1912, starts with a chilling prophecy. When Miranda begins her position as maid-servant to the glamorous and selfish Amanda Whitwell, Amanda wastes no time in using Miranda to suit her own cruel purposes. Miranda becomes the lynchpin to a plot that Amanda devises to marry an American who can maintain her lavish lifestyle, but also keeps the rogue she loves close at hand. However, destiny intervenes, and they board the ill-fated Titanic. This story has all of the romance, glamour, intrigue, and tragedy of the Titanic but ends, satisfyingly, with redemption and forgiveness.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Secrets of the Shopping Mall

From 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.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Father Figure

After his mother dies, 17-year-old Jim realizes he must raise his younger brother, Byron, alone. But when their father shows up with plans to take them to Florida, Jim wonders if the reunion will last.An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

Date Added: 10/14/2019

Monster Night at Grandma's House

Daytime at Grandma's house is fine, but bedtime is terrifying when a monster seems to be about.

Date Added: 10/14/2019