With his last half-dozen novels, veteran, multi-award winning author Richard Peck has carved out for himself a new niche -- the rural midwestern early 20th century comedy. This is another wonderful example of this one-man mini-genre: vivid characters (including adults, all too rare in children's books), lots of period detail, solid values, a nice mix of clever wit and broad comedy, independent girls, and an affectionately sardonic eye for the foibles of rural middle America, where the author grew up, all conveyed in some of the most carefully crafted prose in the business.

Just to get things off to a rousing start, he opens with a tornado that rips apart a graveyard, an event that sets the plot off in several different directions that wind their own ways for awhile before twisting together in a surprising but satisfying conclusion, followed by an even more satisfying final chapter set 60 years later.

The whole book is a delight, made more so, in this age of 500+ page tomes aimed at 9 year olds, by being tightly written and edited.