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    Fair Weather
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    Fair Weather
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    Fair Weather
    Audiobook3 hours

    Fair Weather

    Written by Richard Peck

    Narrated by Estelle Parsons

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett has never strayed further from her family's farm than a horse can pull a cart. Then a letter from her Aunt Euterpe arrives, and everything changes. It's 1893, the year of the World's Columbian Exposition-the "wonder of the age"-a.k.a. the Chicago World's Fair. Aunt Euterpe is inviting the Becketts to come for a visit and go to the fair! Award-winning author Richard Peck's fresh, realistic, and fun-filled writing truly brings the World's Fair-and Rosie and her family-to life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 26, 2002
    ISBN9780807209530
    Unavailable
    Fair Weather
    Author

    Richard Peck

    "I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Decatur, Illinois, a middle-American town in a time when teenagers were considered guilty until proven innocent, which is fair enough. My mother read to me before I could read to myself, and so I dreamed from the start of being a writer in New York. But Decatur returned to haunt me, becoming the "Bluff City" of my four novels starring Alexander Armsworth and Blossom Culp. When I was young, we were never more than five minutes from the nearest adult, and that solved most of the problems I write about for a later generation living nearer the edge. The freedoms and choices prematurely imposed upon young people today have created an entire literature for them. But then novels are never about people living easy lives through tranquil times; novels are the biographies of survivors. "I went to college in Indiana and then England, and I was a soldier in Germany -- a chaplain's assistant in Stuttgart -- ghost-writing sermons and hearing more confessions than the clergy. In Decatur we'd been brought up to make a living and not to take chances, and so I became an English teacher, thinking this was as close to the written word as I'd be allowed to come. And it was teaching that made a writer out of me. I found my future readers right there in the roll book. After all, a novel is about the individual within the group, and that's how I saw young people every day, as their parents never do. In all my novels, you have to declare your independence from your peers before you can take that first real step toward yourself. As a teacher, I'd noticed that nobody ever grows up in a group. "I wrote my first line of fiction on May 24th, 1971 -- after seventh period. I'd quit my teaching job that day, liberated at last from my tenure and hospitalization. At first, I wrote with my own students in mind. Shortly, I noticed that while I was growing older every minute at the typewriter, my readers remained mysteriously the same age. For inspiration, I now travel about sixty thousand miles a year, on the trail of the young. Now, I never start a novel until some young reader, somewhere, gives me the necessary nudge.. "In an age when hardly more than half my readers live in the same homes as their fathers, I was moved to write Father Figure. In it a teenaged boy who has played the father-figure role to his little brother is threatened when they are both reunited with the father they hardly know. It's a novel like so many of our novels that moves from anger to hope in situations to convince young readers that novels can be about them... "I wrote Are You in the House Alone? when I learned that the typical victim of our fastest growing, least-reported crime, rape, is a teenager -- one of my own readers, perhaps. It's not a novel to tell young readers what rape is. They already know that. It's meant to portray a character who must become something more than a victim in our judicial system that defers to the criminal... "Two of my latest attempts to keep pace with the young are a comedy called Lost in Cyberspace and its sequel, The Great Interactive Dream Machine. Like a lot of adults, I noticed that twelve year olds are already far more computer-literate than I will ever be. As a writer, I could create a funny story on the subject, but I expect young readers will be more attracted to it because it is also a story about two friends having adventures together. There's a touch of time travel in it, too, cybernetically speaking, for those readers who liked sharing Blossom Culp's exploits. And the setting is New York, that magic place I dreamed of when I was young in Decatur, Illinois..." More About Richard Peck Richard Peck has written over twenty novels, and in the process has become one of America's most highly respected writers for young adults. A versatile writer, he is beloved by middle graders as well as young adults for his mysteries and coming-of-age novels. He now lives in New York City. In addition to writing, he spends a great deal of time traveling around the country attending speaking engagements at conferences, schools and libraries... Mr. Peck has won a number of major awards for the body of his work, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award from School Library Journal, the National Council of Teachers of English/ALAN Award, and the 1991 Medallion from the University of Southern Mississippi. Virtually every publication and association in the field of children s literature has recommended his books, including Mystery Writers of America which twice gave him their Edgar Allan Poe Award. Dial Books for Young Readers is honored to welcome Richard Peck to its list with Lost in Cyberspace and its sequel The Great Interactive Dream Machine... Twenty Minutes a Day by Richard Peck Read to your children Twenty minutes a day; You have the time, And so do they. Read while the laundry is in the machine; Read while the dinner cooks; Tuck a child in the crook of your arm And reach for the library books. Hide the remote, Let the computer games cool, For one day your children will be off to school; Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice; Let them hear their first tales In the sound of your voice. Read in the morning; Read over noon; Read by the light of Goodnight Moon. Turn the pages together, Sitting close as you'll fit, Till a small voice beside you says, "Hey, don't quit." copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

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    Reviews for Fair Weather

    4/5

    120 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Aunt Euterpe sends Mama a letter...in it are 4 tickets to Chicago and an invitation to visit the World Columbian Exposition (1893) for Mama, Lottie, Rosie, & Buster. Granddad, however, is Not Invited! Mama decides to send the kids and returns her ticket to Aunt Euterpe.....

      Well don't you know as the train heads out of town towards Chicago, it makes a sudden stop....lo & behold, it's Granddad....who snagged Mama's ticket out of the letter going back to Aunt Euterpe...

      Things get off to a rocky beginning...the first night's dinner was the worst food Granddad & the kids have ever eaten, and Granddad makes sure everyone in the house knows it. The next morning the girls get up earlier than the housekeeper and find the kitchen filthy...well growing up on a farm they did what they were taught...they clean (scour & scrub) the kitchen and proceed to make a hearty breakfast, whereupon arriving to find the kitchen clean and a decent meal cooked, Mrs. O'Shea the housekeeper quits. But not before she sticks her hands in her pocket to retrieve the house keys, but instead draws out Buster's snapping turtle quite securely attached to her finger.

      The family's exploits are funny and warm the heart.....The descriptions are true to life and makes us feel as if we were there for the trip to the Fair.

      " 'I suppose you won't be good for anything until you've heard Euterpe's letter,' Mama observed. Wisely no one spoke."

      " 'I ain't gonna wear any of it,' Buster declared. Granddad considered. 'Well boy, you can't go neekid in Chicago. The wind comes right off the lake.' "

      "We got it sorted out. Lillian Russell-the real one-was a woman, an actress. Admiring her, Granddad named his horse for her. It was the kind of thing he'd do."

      " 'It is you, isn't it, Si? You old owlhoot.' Buffalo Bill sat back in his saddle and tipped his hat. Yes it was. It was Silas Fuller, our Granddad."

      " ' Boy, come and meet the greatest lady of American stage.' Granddad grabbed for him. 'Ma'am,' he said, 'this here's my grandson, Bus-LeRoy. Boy this here is Miss Lillian Russell!' Buster beheld her, this perfect woman in her unforgettable hat, with her armload of roses, her lovely smile. 'Did they name you for our horse?' Buster inquired."

      I was happy to reread this book
    • 5/5
      This is a fun and funny story narrated by a 13-year-old named Rosie. It is set in 1893 during the time of the first World's Fair. Rosie's family lives on a farm in Illinois and gets an opportunity to go to the Fair. Her small town family, including her colorful Granddad, make the journey and take the reader with them. As a reader, you are invited to experience the wonder of the fair and the adventure for Rosie!
    • 5/5
      In 1893 Rosie Beckett’s family got a letter from their Aunt Euterpe in Chicago. They’d never had a letter from her before.It’s the year of the Columbia Exposition and Aunt Euterpe has sent her invitation and railroad tickets for Rosie, her older sister Lotti, her younger brother Buster and their mother to travel to Chicago and see the Exposition. Euterpe feels she is making a great offer to give her backwoods family to see what the world has to offer. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.As Euterpe has lived in Chicago for a good number of years, the question is can she handle her family and their lack of sophistication. Especially when one member shows up unexpectedly.Author Richard Peck writes in the voice of his characters. This book is in Rosie’s voice and tells of each family member’s experiences and the surprises they have during their week-long visit. The incredible sights and the people they meet. There are historical photos to help set the scene of the era, which I feel adds to the over-all story telling. It may be a book for kinds, but adults can enjoy it too. It is also a story that tells how family can be important even though not everyone lives in a particular style/place.
    • 5/5
      This was a sort quick read that was very enjoyable. It gave some interesting insight into the Chicago’s World Fair without being overly daunting with facts. It also talked about society and the expectations that came with it. I would recommend it for younger readers that like Navy Pier and the Ferris wheel.
    • 5/5
      Young Rosie Beckett, her sister Lottie, her brother Buster, and their Granddad visit the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. A great little YA book, fun, interesting,
    • 4/5
      Richard Peck's story of Rosie Beckett's adventure to the 1893 World's Columbian Expo is, in a word, enchanting. This was my first time reading anything by Peck, and I'm sure to find more by him.Rosie, her mother, sister and brother are invited by their Aunt Euterpe to travel to Chicago to see the World's Fair. Their mother decides not to go, but thinks it might be a good idea to send the children. Never having traveled farther from home than their horse could travel, Chicago might as well have been an entirely different country for the children. Upon arriving in Chicago, through several accidents of fate, the children and their Aunt's lives are never going to be quite the same. Sprinkled throughout with historical names and places from Chicago's past, Peck deftly recreates that White City and the people that made it happen.I love the city of Chicago. I visit there all the time, and someday would like to live there. When I can't make it to the city, I love to read about it, and one of my favorite subjects is the World's Fair. I would have loved to have been there, to have seen it firsthand and feel that rush of the possibility of tomorrow that it brought to so many people and Peck's book delivers that thrill through the eyes of his characters.Recommended.
    • 5/5
      This book reminded me of the film Meet me in St. Louis, although the description of midway seem a bit more urban to me. Though this book I felt was too short and I was really sad for it to end, I loved it from cover to cover
    • 5/5
      Another GREAT book by Richard Peck. Family gets invited to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago by a rich aunt.
    • 5/5
      Another GREAT book by Richard Peck. Family gets invited to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago by a rich aunt.
    • 5/5
      Excellent historical fiction set at the World's Fair in Chicago IL 1893. Great character development. Written for elementary school children but I think adults would enjoy it as a quick read as well. Fun on audio also!
    • 5/5
      Great book. Made me feel as if I'd attended the Chicago World's Fair! I will probably have our 10 and 11 yr olds read it this summer (we home school.) A movie to watch can be found at Netflix...Expo: The Magic of the White City (I think) We just watched it last night. Narrated by Gene Wilder. I learned much I didn't know about "The fair".