Invitations to the world Book

This book is weirdly targeted... I found it in the YA biography section, but it's not really "for the young." It's for adults interested in young adult lit. It's part memoir, part reflection on how YA writing has changed over the course of Peck's long career, and part analysis of his own oeuvre. Turns out Peck is a bit of a curmudgeon! In this volume he really lets out all the "those kids and their cars and their malls and their email and their disrespect for authority" rants he's been holding in. You've got to respect the guy - he's in his 80s but he still goes out and visits schools and works deeply not to moralize at kids, but to wrap up his lessons in compelling, timely fiction.

Also, I'd known that he grew up in central IL as my dad did, and had naturally been drawn to his books set there. But I'm glad I read this because it turns out the setting is actually the smallll town of Cerro Gordo - his father's hometown as well as my own grandmother's! I doublechecked with my dad and he was all "Oh sure, there were some Pecks there. One of the families owned a store and used to give Granny Bea a discount on canned goods, they were some kind of distant cousins..." There you have it.