Richard Peck

Fair Weather is set in rural Illinois in 1893. Rosie Becket is fourteen, headstrong, and only knows of life in her small rural farming village. The novel open with the sentence, “It was the last day of our old lives, and we didn’t even know it.” So begins the tale of Rosie, her older sister Lottie, and her younger brother Buster and their trip to the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago.

The chance to attend the Fair is thanks to their distant Aunt Euterpe, rich and widowed, still mourning after four years. After much thought and consideration, Rosie’s mother announces that the girls will go, along with Buster, to visit their Aunt Euterpe and attend the Fair. Mrs. Beckett will remain behind, however, a farm family never having time to spare. Once the children have boarded the train bound for Chicago, a surprise visitor or two come aboard – unrefined, uninvited and boisterous Granddad Fuller and, later, his dog Tip.

Peck's characters are the life of his story. As Peck said, history is about people (Rochman 2004). Peck brings history to life through his characters. Rosie Becket brings life to Fair Weather– her narration is up to the minute with anecdotes of her sister, brother, and grandfather. The reader sees the Fair through her eyes like they are seeing the world open up for the first time. Peck also brings life to minor characters in his novels, such as Granddad Fuller in all of his quirky ways and habits. Granddad is a character through and through, providing plenty of room for humor and laughter throughout the story. Such as Granddad insulting Aunt Euterpe’s cook one too many times, which caused the entire family to leave late at night to get supper and their first glimpse of the fair. . . "Helaca- toot, Terpie!" he cried out. "What kind of excuse for soup is this? It looks like somthin' drained out of the umbrella stand." Or Granddad’s insistence on seeing Lillian Russell and Buffalo Bill Cody, providing some of the most entertaining excerpts from the novel.

From the first chapter of Fair Weather, Peck brings the reader into the characters of the novel. We see Granddad in his daily commute to town and his set ways. We see Lottie’s maturity compared with Rosie’s youthful, headstrong ways. We see Buster as “quicksilver” – here one moment and gone the next, constantly popping up when you need him least. And we see the world of the farm – the genuinely hard labor involved in day to day life. The first glimpse of these characters carries the reader from page one of the novel to the very end, providing such enjoyable characters that it is sad to finish the book, however fulfilling the story is. According to Flynn, “Peck makes the exposition come alive as much for his twenty-first-century readers as for his richly imagined characters” (2001).

Through such a humorous story, Peck gives the reader a small glimpse into what the Fair meant during this time in history. It was a symbol for freedom, experience and life.

Fair Weather. New York: Dial Books, 2001. ISBN 0803725167

Flynn, Kitty. "Fair Weather (Book Review)." Horn Book Magazine 77, no. 6 (2001): 757, http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Authtype=cookie,ip,url,uid&db=aph&an=5484934, accessed 31 October 2004.

Rochman, Hazel. "Talking with Richard Peck." Book Links 14, no. 1 (2004): 44, http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Authtype=cookie,ip,url,uid&db=aph&an=14388437, accessed 31 October 2004