The Newbery Medal-winning author of "A Year Down Yonder" is back with a rousing, wicked comedy of cars, role models, and revelation that features q...
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Oct 09, 2011
Jim
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Here Lies the Librarian, by author Richard Peck, is a coming-of-age young readers story set in rural 1914 Indiana, where women's suffrage and the brass (Edwardian) era of automobiles were the real cat's meow. So if you enjoy the literary combination of women's lib' and racing lore then this book will blow your freaking mind! If you don't find that tour-de-force of genre mixing interesting, well... too bad! Because that's what you get in this thrilling novel!
Peewee McGrath is a 14 More...
Peewee McGrath is a 14 More...
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Jun 13, 2008
Kimberly
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This is a great little book that I breezed through very quickly. It's an historical fiction set in early 20th century USA, when the automobile was just beginning to make its mark. After the old librarian dies in a twister - "Heaven stamped her overdue" - four new librarians from Butler University show up to take her place and bring some excitement to the town. The story is narrated by 8th grader Peewee McGrath and is set in a rural town in Indiana, a place so small it doesn't even h
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Jan 02, 2008
Steve
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Set in pre-WWI rural Indiana, this is the tale of a small town’s pair of parentless youngsters, older brother Jake, in his older teens, taking care of his younger sibling, Peewee. Jake has an automobile service business in a ramshackle shack not from the home he shares with Peewee. Peewee helps in the garage, too, and while their lack of parents is alluded to in a few wistful remembrances of the past, it is not explained in any detail. From a neighboring house, the owners of the former livery
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Dec 16, 2009
Abby
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It's 1914 in rural Indiana and Eleanor McGrath just wants to be a mechanic like her brother. Unfortunately, her plans are derailed by the arrival in town of four beautiful young ladies who have come to replace the town librarian. Reluctantly, Eleanor (a.k.a. Peewee) begins to learn the things young ladies have to know, although she's still just as likely to change oil or race cars as ever. She's a bit jealous as her brother falls for one of the young ladies, an heiress to an Indianapolis motor c
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Jul 28, 2010
Jenne
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From the Newbery award winning author of “A Year Down Under”, comes an uproariously funny tale of classic automobiles, librarians and small town life.
Meet Peewee (Eleanor McGrath) a 14 year old stubborn, courageous and steadfast tomboy. She and her adored brother Jake run a struggling gas station "way out in the weeds." that rivals the bigger, wealthier and underhanded Kirby establishment. All Peewee wants is to work on cars. Jake has big dreams though, and not even a few robberies an More...
Meet Peewee (Eleanor McGrath) a 14 year old stubborn, courageous and steadfast tomboy. She and her adored brother Jake run a struggling gas station "way out in the weeds." that rivals the bigger, wealthier and underhanded Kirby establishment. All Peewee wants is to work on cars. Jake has big dreams though, and not even a few robberies an More...
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Aug 15, 2011
Tony
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Richard Peck- Here Lies the Librarian (Scholastic Books 2006) 3 Stars
The back of the book describes it as: Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down.
It was an interesting beginning. Something about the writing s More...
The back of the book describes it as: Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down.
It was an interesting beginning. Something about the writing s More...
Jul 09, 2011
Molly
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So I've been a librarian for like 8 years or so and I have always walked by this book on the shelf. The title always intrigued me - especially being a librarian and all. But for some reason I just was never interested enough to read it. Maybe it was the cover. Maybe I figured a book about a librarian was going to be boring....I know, sort of a bad thing to think. But a few days ago I found myself without a book on CD to listen to in the car and I grabbed this one off the shelf so I would have so
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May 31, 2011
M.
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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May 29, 2011
Patricia
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Richard Peck loves librarians. Librarians love Richard Peck. I think that he wrote this book to dispel the notion that all librarians are mean, dowdy, and old. That description applies to the old librarian whose grave is shown on the cover (with a gravestone that says Shh!).
A small town in Indiana is shamed into hiring a new librarian, and ends up hiring three -- they come as a package deal with the money that will pay for them. These three librarians are educated, kind, and b More...
A small town in Indiana is shamed into hiring a new librarian, and ends up hiring three -- they come as a package deal with the money that will pay for them. These three librarians are educated, kind, and b More...
Apr 25, 2011
Barky
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Mar 25, 2011
Rachel
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Of course, the title of the book is what drew me to this Richard Peck book. Like working person, I like to see my profession glorified in the written word. But what really drew me in was the the local color and the unique characters in this novel set in Hendricks County, Indiana. PeeWee is a tomboy who works with her brother Jake at his auto shop in the year 1914 in a small town outside of Brownsburg. The town library had closed with the death of a librarian, who was so "enamored" by t
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Feb 24, 2010
Sarai
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From School Library Journal
Set in rural Indiana, circa 1914, tomboy PeeWee works with her adored older brother Jake. The automobile is replacing the horse and buggy and the young brother and sister run a fledgling gas station. When a tornado rips through town and tears up the defunct library, the town elders are shamed into re-opening it. Irene Ridpath and three of her sorority sisters fresh out of library school arrive and set the small town on its ear. Motherless PeeWee has never encount More...
Set in rural Indiana, circa 1914, tomboy PeeWee works with her adored older brother Jake. The automobile is replacing the horse and buggy and the young brother and sister run a fledgling gas station. When a tornado rips through town and tears up the defunct library, the town elders are shamed into re-opening it. Irene Ridpath and three of her sorority sisters fresh out of library school arrive and set the small town on its ear. Motherless PeeWee has never encount More...
Oct 02, 2010
Mama Kaye
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I had so much fun reading this book. Set in a rural central Indiana small town in 1914, it tells the story of a parent-less young teenage girl and her older brother who are trying to make a go of it as auto mechanics. I loved the eccentric characters, the homespun humor, and laugh-outloud scenes such as a tornado ripping up a cemetery, a hilarious library board meeting, and a rip-roaring car race at the county fair.
Although fun and light-hearted, the story touches on some important More...
Although fun and light-hearted, the story touches on some important More...
Dec 21, 2009
Nicole
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Typical Peck. By which I mean, Typical Greatness. No one pulls off the middle-grade deadpan humor quite like Peck. For example, as the neighbors gather in the storm cellar during a tornado, the protagonist states that at least this time the Colonel (an elderly adle-minded man) was wearing pants. This simple line is sandwiched in with all the rest of the sentences, given no special attention, and yet instantly calls to mind hysterical images of pantless old men flying around in a twister. Pr
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Apr 28, 2009
Here Lies the Librarian is a book about a young girl who looks up to her big brother. Her mom and father have died and her brother Jake, her aunt Hat, and Colonel Hazelrigg were left to take care of her. Peewee, the name her brother gave her, works with her brother in an old shack they use as an automobile shop. She helps fix cars along with her brother. Because of little female help, Peewee looks like a boy and acts like one for the most part. Everything was very plain for this family unti
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Jan 16, 2009
Mary Karlee
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Before I say anything about the book, I would like to say the title is quite misleading. This is hardly a horror story, but rather, great fiction about small town life watching their world evolve from horse and buggy to the "hard road" and the automobile. I loved the writing style and found the main character easy to identify with. I also liked that this book featured an era that I hadn't known a lot about. Fun story. :)
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Dec 13, 2011
Charlie
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Here lies the Librarian
by Richard Peck
Published by Dial Books
Copyright Date 2006
$16.99 hard cover
PLOT/SUMMARY:
Jake and Peewee have dreamed of becoming an amazing auto company working on the land of their small shack and even smaller garage business is already hard enough but with kirbie's auto care company it just gets even harder. With Kirbie's
constantly ransacking and vandalizing their garage it is almost More...
by Richard Peck
Published by Dial Books
Copyright Date 2006
$16.99 hard cover
PLOT/SUMMARY:
Jake and Peewee have dreamed of becoming an amazing auto company working on the land of their small shack and even smaller garage business is already hard enough but with kirbie's auto care company it just gets even harder. With Kirbie's
constantly ransacking and vandalizing their garage it is almost More...
Jul 12, 2011
Crys
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Peewee is fourteen, lives in Indiana, and is being raised by her brother. It is 1914, a time when there were expectations of females, and not one of them revolved around fixing cars. None the less, that is what Peewee does, what she and her brother do to make a living.
A fateful afternoon, all of that changes with the arrival of four women who decided that they want to run the public library. All four are earning their degrees, and they recognize that this town needs them just as much More...
A fateful afternoon, all of that changes with the arrival of four women who decided that they want to run the public library. All four are earning their degrees, and they recognize that this town needs them just as much More...
Oct 17, 2009
Lisa
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I saw one of you recommend this recently, so grabbed it on book on tape. I loved it. All the female characters are unique and headstrong, from PeeWee (Eleanor) to Irene to Grace to Aunt Hat.
It's hilarious in many parts, as PeeWee and Jake lives are turned upside down by the arrival of four library school beauties to make over the abandoned library in town. Jake, who with PeeWee's help has been trying to get his auto mechanic shop off the ground, falls for two of the young women, More...
It's hilarious in many parts, as PeeWee and Jake lives are turned upside down by the arrival of four library school beauties to make over the abandoned library in town. Jake, who with PeeWee's help has been trying to get his auto mechanic shop off the ground, falls for two of the young women, More...
Apr 30, 2010
Stevecrandell
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Richard Peck mixes jokes and heartwarming stories and small-town Americana as well as any author I’ve ever read. This adventure, set within the earliest days of auto racing in Indiana, is one more example. I’m not sure librarians deserve all the reflected praise we may gain from a character like Irene Ridpath, but she’s someone to aspire to. The strongest character by far is 14-year-old Peewee. Rough and outspoken, better with a gearbox than almost any boy, she makes a rapid transition into stro
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Aug 04, 2011
Neill
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Peewee and her brother, Jake, are trying to start a garage in an old livery stable outside a rural village at the very beginning of the age of the automobile. They live among a group of eccentric characters and are at war with a group of bullying brothers in the nearby village who have also started a garage. Jake and Peewee are befriended by four senior students from wealthy families who are studying Library Science at a nearby university and have decided to reopen the library to gain experien
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Jul 25, 2009
Maureen
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i liked this book because of the setting of Southern Indiana. A young girl and her brother try to grow up like their parents would have them. Only things are not normal. A tornado is normal for Indiana and does occur in the begining of this story. With coffins coming out of the ground and opening up. Kind of scary but they survive this little diversion. They have a gas-auto repair station out side of town. The librarian is dead and the town has to decide if they want to hire a librarian or forg
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Jun 02, 2008
Mary
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Pretty good read. An orphaned boy and girl are car mechanics in a rural town, have to deal with the competition for business, and meet some girls who try to revive the town library. They also try to fulfill the boy's dream of becoming a race car driver.
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May 16, 2011
Kathy
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Nov 17, 2011
Natalie
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A twister tears apart the small town where Jack and PeeWee live. While much of the cemetery is damages, the headstone of Electra Dietz remains intact. Miss Dietz had been the town librarian before her death. In a strange turn of events, a caravan of fancy new cars come into town, carrying girls who are vying for position as the next town librarian. With hilarious and offbeat humor, Peck tells the story of life in this small town and the girls who blew in to change it forever.
This is a ve More...
This is a ve More...
Jan 28, 2010
Ingrid
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I have read a few of Richard Peck's books and have always enjoyed his quirky characters. This book takes place in a small Indiana town in 1914. The lives of Peewee and Jake are turned upside down when four new librarians come to town. The librarians are all quite well to do and from Indianapolis and they cause quite a sensation in the small country town. The book describes small town life as well as the fascination with classic automobiles and car racing. The book is quite humorous, but there
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Oct 30, 2009
Talia
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PeeWee is a young girl (who dresses like a boy) living in 1914 rural Indiana. PeeWee lives with her older brother Jake, and together they run a small car repair service for the few cars that come by. When a band of young, lady librarians come into town to revive the town library, they bring with them new ideas as well as a love of cars!
This book was ok, but not as good as other Richard Peck books I’ve read. This is a must-read for librarians (who doesn’t like a major book character More...
This book was ok, but not as good as other Richard Peck books I’ve read. This is a must-read for librarians (who doesn’t like a major book character More...
Aug 26, 2010
Latricia
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As usual Peck's writing was excellent. Peewee, Peck's charming narrator, draws the reader easily into her 1914 small town life and the excitement of the summer when their town was invaded by four young librarians. Add to Peck's usual charm and witt, a cast of very strong female characters who manage to balance being lady-like (or in Peewee's case learning to be lady-like) with being independant and resourceful, forging thier own future in a time when women were expected to depend on men. There w
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May 24, 2011
This was a cute little story about Peewee and her brother Jake during the time of the first automobiles. Together they work on cars and Jake has big dreams of entering his homemade car into the county fair race. Four librarians with library science degrees come to their small Indiana town and revolutionize the community and especially Peewee and Jake by helping them realize how much potential they have and that they can accomplish their dreams. We have a lot of Richard Peck in the library and
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Feb 15, 2010
Karen
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tubborn, fearless, and loyal, 14-year-old Peewee (Eleanor) McGrath, who dresses like a boy, lives with her brother, Jake, in Indiana, "way out in the weeds." Together, they run a struggling garage, where Jake is building a racecar. It's 1914, and the electric self-starter has made automobiles more accessible to women. One day, four female drivers, library students all, arrive in a Stoddard-Dayton in need of repair; later, they return to reopen the town library. With these young women a
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