Past Perfect, Present Tense

Though Richard Peck is best known as a novelist, he has been writing short stories-rousing, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining-throughout his career. “Priscilla and the Wimps,” his first, is perhaps the most-read children's short story of all time. Others have inspired his award-winning novels: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder began with a tale called “Shotgun Cheatham's Last Night Above Ground”; and “The Electric Summer” was the jumping point for Fair Weather.
Compiled f...