Middle

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

Marty Preston worked so hard to earn his dog Shiloh, and he had hoped that his troubles with Judd Travers were over. He could not rescue all the dogs that Judd mistreated, but since Shiloh was the one who ran away and came to him, Shiloh was the one he loved. Judd, however, has other problems. Anyone who cheats, swears, lies, and kicks his dogs has troubles inside himself.

Set during the years 1929–1942, and told in eight engaging episodes, this fresh and funny novel recounts a boy and his sister's annual summer trips to rural Illinois to visit their eccentric grandmother. Grandma Dowdel, a remarkable larger-than-life character, continually astounds her grandchildren with her nonconformist behavior and her gutsy, take-charge attitude.

In his celebrated novels A Year Down Yonder and A Long Way from Chicago, Richard Peck carried us happily back to the Midwest of the 1930's. Now he's ready to transport us all the way back to 1893, to the Chicago World's Fair and its breathtaking mix of personalities and glimpses of the future.