Peck's comedy is his best since Bel Air Bambi and the Mall Rats. Filled with the kind of detail that can only come from memory, the book is blessed by Grandma Dowdel, a true original. Sharp-tongued and peppery, like so many of Peck's central characters, she reveals her heart to her grandchildren through action, not mawkish blather.

In a succession of summers she outwits the press, local hooligans, and the sheriff, all for the benefit of the town and its residents whom she appears to despise. Her clever, no nonsense approach to problems is wicked and original, though often mystifying to her grandchildren, and Peck's perfect blend of outrageous humor and unsentimental warmth make this a true rarity in comic novels -- one that is at once richly funny, memorable, and deeply satisfying.

From the Book:
Presently she said, " I'll tell you what that reporter's after. He wants to get the horselaugh on us because he thinks we're nothing but a bunch of hayseeds and no-'count country people. We are, but what business is it of his?"

"Who was Shotgun Cheatham anyway?" Mary Alice asked.

"He was just an old reprobate who lived poor and died broke," Grandma said. "Nobody went near him because he smelled like a polecat. He lived in a chicken coop, and now they'll have to burn it down."