A major theme of this story by Richard Peck is the benefit of occasionally stepping out of one’s comfort zone. When junior high schooler Gene “goes along” to a poetry recital with students from a higher English class, he doesn’t “go along” with the students in his own class who ignore the opportunity. Although it isn’t clear whether Gene gains an appreciation for poetry, he is lucky enough to sit with, and starts to “get along” with, the hottest girl in his grade. Other themes include independence vs. conformity to peer pressure, and friendship. More…
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Shadows
This Richard Peck story leaves readers with a question. A lonely child grows up in an old Louisiana plantation-house that she believes to be haunted. On turning five, she befriends the shabbily dressed spirit of a boy (Seth) that not only can talk, but also wants to learn reading, writing and basic arithmetic. As school and real friends take up more of the girl’s time, Seth stops visiting. He makes one final appearance as she prepares to leave for college, leaving her puzzled and very confused. Themes: loneliness, friendship, coming of age, alienation, literacy, the supernatural. More…
Priscilla and the Wimps
In addition to this being Richard Peck’s first young adult story, it is one of his most popular. This is undoubtedly because it not only follows the age-old success formula of a victorious underdog, but does so in the context of humiliating a school bully. Another plus is that the denouement is left to the reader’s imagination. Does Pricilla come back later in the day to release Monk? Do her or Melvin’s parents phone the school and arrange for the locker to be opened? Or do they come back in a week’s time and find that Monk is an ice-block? More…
The Three-Century Woman
In this humorous story by Richard Peck, a fourteen-year-old girl accompanies her mother and aunt to visit her great-grandmother on her 102nd birthday. Because of the great-grandmother’s “three-century” status (born in 1899, living through the 1900s, and still alive in 2001), her room in the usually quiet nursing home is surrounded by press. Anticipating this, the normally sleepy, forgetful old woman is not only propped up in bed dressed for an interview, but has prepared an elaborate prank to play on them. Themes include playfulness, taking the aged for granted (the aged are more than their memories!), change. More…