Richard Peck

A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.

In 1887, the social-climbing Cranstons voyage from New York to London, where they hope to find a husband for their awkward older daughter, secretly accompanied by Helena and her mouse siblings, for whom the journey is both terrifying and wondrous as they meet an array of titled humans despite their best efforts at remaining hidden.

During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel. The eccentric, forceful, big-hearted Grandma Dowdel--the star of Peck's Newbery Medal-winning "A Year Down Yonder"--is back in this new story set during Christmas of 1958. A new family has moved in next door to Mrs. Dowdel, and soon she will work her particular...

While hiding in a graveyard, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn witness a murder. Except for the killer himself, only they know who committed the deed. Terrified of the killer, Tom and Huck take an oath of secrecy. But their consciences bother them when an innocent man is accused of the crime and jailed. Will Tom and Huck speak out to save the innocent man from hanging? The murderer, meanwhile, remains at large, filling their sleep with nightmares. A...