The Best Man

by Richard Peck

Overview

Newbery Medalist Richard Peck tells a story of small-town life, gay marriage, and everyday heroes in this novel for fans of Gary Schmidt and Jack Gantos.

Archer Magill has spent a lively five years of grade school with one eye out in search of grown-up role models. Three of the best are his grandpa, the great architect; his dad, the great vintage car customizer,; and his uncle Paul, who is just plain great. These are the three he wants to be. Along the way he finds a fourth—Mr. McLeod, a teacher. In fact, the first male teacher in the history of the school.

But now here comes middle school and puberty. Change. Archer wonders how much change has to happen before his voice does. He doesn't see too far ahead, so every day or so a startling revelation breaks over him. Then a really big one when he's the best man at the wedding of two of his role models. But that gets ahead of the story.

In pages that ripple with laughter, there's a teardrop here and there. And more than a few insights about the bewildering world of adults, made by a boy on his way to being the best man he can be.

Boston Globe Horn Honor Book
Amazon Editors’ Picks for Fall (Ages 9-12)
New York Times Notable Children's Book
Horn Book Fanfare
School Library Journal Best Books of 2016
Kirkus Best Books of 2016
Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2016

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780147515797
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	615,699
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

RICHARD PECK (1934-2018) was born in Decatur, Illinois and lived in New York City for nearly 50 years. The acclaimed author of 35 novels for children and young adults, he won the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder, a Newbery Honor for A Long Way from Chicago, the Scott O’Dell Award for The River Between Us, the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Are You in the House Alone?, a Boston Globe-Horn BookAward Honor for The Best Man, and the Christopher Medal for The Teacher’s Funeral. He was the first children’s author ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal, and was twice a National Book Award Finalist.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Boys aren’t too interested in weddings. Girls like them. Grown-ups like them. But my first-grade year started with one wedding, and my sixth ended with another. Call my story “A Tale of Two Weddings.” I was in both of them.

 

One of the weddings was great. In fact, it’s just over. There’s still some cake. And I got a fantastic new suit out of it. The pants are cuffed. The coat gives me shoulders, and I’ll be sorry to outgrow it. I won’t mind being taller, but I’ll miss the suit.

Also, a pair of gold cuff links are involved, but we’ll come to them later.

The other wedding, the first one, was a train wreck, so let’s get that one out of the way. Besides, it happened when I was too little to know what was happening or to stand up for my rights. I didn’t have any rights. I was six.

Did I even know what weddings are? And this one wasn’t even anybody in our family.

“Archer, honey,” said Mom one day. I was in her office for some reason I didn’t see coming. Mom’s maiden name was Archer. I’m named for her kid brother, Paul Archer.

Mom was about to pull me onto her lap. But I held up both hands. They were red and black with touch-up paint. I was paint all over. I’d sat in some. Dad and I had been out in the garage detailing a vintage ’56 Chevy Bel Air.

Mom pulled back, but only a little. “There’s going to be a wedding, and guess what? You get to be in it.”

“Get Holly,” I said. Holly’s my sister, seven years older, so she’d have been thirteen or so.

“We already have Holly,” Mom said. “She’s going to be a junior bridesmaid. She’s tickled pink.”

“What’s left?”

“Ring bearer,” Mom said.

“What’s that?”

“You carry the bride’s ring down the aisle on a little satin pillow.”

“Whoa,” I said.

“You won’t be alone,” Mom said. “Don’t worry about that. There’ll be another ring bearer. She’ll carry the groom’s ring.”

She?

“A darling little girl named Lynette Stanley.”

A girl?

“Her mother and I went to college together. We were best buds in the Tri Delt House. The Stanleys have moved here for the schools, so you and Lynette will be starting first grade together, and you’ll already be friends!” Mom beamed.

How could I be friends with a girl? I stood there, waiting to wake up from this bad dream.

“I can wear my regular clothes,” I said. “Right?”

“Archer, honey, you don’t have regular clothes,” Mom said. “And by the way, racing-stripe paint doesn’t come out in the wash. I suppose your dad’s in about the same condition.”

“Pretty much,” I said.

“We’ll look at what you’ll wear for the wedding a little later on.” Mom glanced away. “A little closer to the event.”

I racked my six-year-old brain. There had to be a way out of this. There’s always a way out when you’re six, right? “Who are they, these people getting married?”

Mom was looking away, far, far away. “The bride is Mrs. Ridgley’s granddaughter,” she said.

“Who’s Mrs. Ridgley?”

“An old friend of your grandmother Magill.”

“Were they best buds in the Tri Delt House?”

“No,” Mom said. “They were best buds at the Salem witch trials.”



Chapter 2

Every hot August day brought the wedding closer. My sister, Holly, came home from camp and pounded up to her room to try on her junior bridesmaid dress. She about wore it out before the day came. But the day came.

So did my ring-bearer rig, my first FeEx delivery. Mrs. Addison Magill had sent for it—Grandma. I couldn't read it, but I knew that much. "Archer," Mom said, "whatever it is, you'll have to wear it. I do my best with your grandmother Magill, but it's never good enough. Never. Be a brave boy."

It was going to be a simple porch wedding, Grandma's porch. They wouldn't even need a rehearsal, which was fine with me. I didn't know what a rehearsal was. Just a gathering of friends. No fuss.

But a hundred and twenty-five chairs were set up on the front lawn when the wedding day dawned. We live behind my grandparents. Two big square houses. Grandpa Magill built them.

Dad stayed down in the garage as long as he could. But time ran out for him too.

"A tie?" I heard him say to Mom up in their room. "I have to wear a tie?"

I crouched at the end of my bed. I couldn't sit all the way down on my ring-bearer's rig.

An idea hit me—the best idea I'd ever had in my life. I'd go hide, and after a while they'd forget they'd ever had me. 

I know. A few months older—a few weeks—and I'd have seen all the bugs in this plan. The first thing you learn in school is that there's no place to hide. 

I vanished while the coast was clear. Not easy in those shoes. Even the soles seemed to be patent leather. I skidded past Holly's room. And Mom and Dad's, where Mom was tying Dad's tie. Then I was outdoors and across the alley to Grandpa and Grandma's. August sun glinted off me. I was all in white like the bride.

I came across Grandpa Magill, in the porch swing Dad had set up for him in our backyard. He wore his seersucker suit and a straw hat, and was sound asleep. Cleo the cat was in his lap. She glanced up at me, then stared. Even to the cat I looked ridiculous. Up at the back of Grandma and Grandpa's house, uniformed people were putting glasses on trays. The wedding cake stood under a plastic sheet. I wouldn't have said no to a piece of cake, but I had some disappearing to do.

Now I was moving from one snowball bush to the next, along the side of the house, and the front porch. I slid back a piece of loose latticework down low and slipped inside. Now you see me, now you don't.

I'd been down here under the porch before, making a fort, messing around. It's a cool, webby place with some mud. I was inches from the wedding, but totally invisible.

Footsteps thundered on the porch floor above. Murmuring came from the folding chairs in the yard. A string quartet tuned up directly over my head. Then I got a big surprise.

A face appeeared in the open space I'd come through. I jumped, and cracked my head on a beam. A girl ducked inside. She had a mop of red hair with a big pink bow in it. You could just stand up in here, if you were six. She was a little bigger than I was, all the way around.

Her skirt was a lot of peachy pink net. We seemed to be wearing matching shoes. "Hey, bozo, you're supposed to be on the porch, not under it," the girl said. "What are you, five?"

It was Lynette Stanley, of course.

"How'd you know I was down here?"

"I saw you from the living room window." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. Her dress had weird puffy sleeves.

"Who could miss you in all that white? You look like a snow cone."

It was dim down here, but Lynette Stanley got a good look at me.

"White velvet shorts?" she said. "What were they thinking?"

"Shut up," I said, hopeless.

"They're really tight on you."

Tighter than she knew. I coudn't sit down.

"They're like toddler's shorts," Lynette said. "It's like you wear training pants underneath."

I wasn't wearing anything underneath. How could I? And I was beginning to chafe.

"It's like you drink out of a sippy cup. And look at your shirt. You've got more ruffles down your front than I do."

She held out her skirt. "And I look like Fancy Nancy."

Her dress was a lot of net, a lot of sash, those ruffles. Dorky. She'd had a FedEx delivery too. Above us the string quartet went into "You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings."

"It's a bad dress," I told Lynette, "but you'll be safe down here."

"Are you nuts?" she said. "We're already late. They'll be panicking. They'll be on their phones. It'll be an Amber Alert."

"I'm not going." I put my hands behind me. "You go ahead."

Lynette sighed and made a grab for me. She was planning to frog-march me out from under the porch or something. I jumped back. My slick shoes shot out from under me. I sat down hard, and my hands slapped mud. We heard the sound of stitches popping.

"Whoops," said Lynette.

Something inside me had known this wasn't going to work. A sob started up, behind the baby-blue velvet bow tie. 

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Best Man

Autumn 2016 Kids' Indie Next List — "Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers":
 
Amazon Editors’ Picks for Fall (Ages 9-12)
New York Times Notable Children's Book
Horn Book Fanfare
School Library Journal Best Books of 2016
Kirkus Best Books of 2016
Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2016
 
“Peck is at heart a gentle realist, a keen observer of family dynamics who uses the soft power of understated emotion to tack social issues. His latest middle grade novel, The Best Man is . . . a reminder that no matter your gender or sexuality, love is love is love.”—New York Times Book Review

* "A nostalgic slice of Rockwell Americana with a contemporary filling. Delicious—take a bite."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "An indelible portrait of what it looks like to grow up in an age of viral videos and media frenzies, undergirded by the same powerful sense of family that characterizes so much of Peck's work."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "Rise and toast The Best Man . . . We're not done needing books like this. Comic, easy to read, swiftly paced, and matter-of-fact, Peck's latest steps out to lead the way."—Horn Book, starred review

* "A witty, engaging novel from a master storyteller."—Booklist, starred review

* “The Newbery Award–winning [Richard Peck] explores what it means to love and what it means to be a man. A modern, funny, and realistic tale featuring strong, nuanced, and unforgettable characters . . . Essential.”—School Library Journal, starred review
 
“Sweet…The award-winning Peck has often written from the past, but here he applies his humor and humanity to the present, where it is so sorely needed.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Author Richard Peck relates the years between the weddings with his signature humor, using the intimacy of the first-person point of view to provide Archer’s take on his world
—sometimes clueless, always earnest—as he grows up and seeks role models…[An] endearing, full-of-life story.” —BookPage, Top Pick Review
 
“Insightful and witty…There's plenty of homespun wisdom here, but no hint of preaching…Peck's wandering, anecdote-rich narrative is set in Chicago, and told in the dryly funny voice of an immensely likable, if slightly oblivious boy named Archer Magill…A modern-day delight with a satisfyingly old-fashioned feel.”—Shelf Awareness
 
“One of my favorite books of September for middle graders is Richard Peck's The Best Man…There is lots of humor and wisdom in The Best Man,
 and to me it embodies what I want most for my child—to be caring, compassionate, and let the best of you shine through.”—Seira Wilson, Amazon Books

From the Publisher

…Peck is at heart a gentle realist, a keen observer of family dynamics who uses the soft power of understated emotion to tackle social issues…In an introductory note, Peck says he hopes The Best Man isn't "political." Still, there's something revolutionary about the book's approach to gayness…In its quiet way, by normalizing a variety of flavors of gay and straight masculinity for the first generation raised in a world in which gay marriage is the law of the land, The Best Man is political. It will be a battered paperback in classrooms soon enough, one more reminder that no matter your gender or sexuality, love is love is love.

The New York Times Book Review - Whitney Joiner

★ 05/30/2016
Markedly more contemporary than many of Peck’s previous novels, this drolly narrated coming-of-age story traces milestones in Archer Magill’s life from first to sixth grade while deftly addressing a variety of social issues. The first scene—depicting a “train wreck” of a wedding in which six-year-old Archer performs ring bearer duties in a pair of muddy, too-tight shorts that have split open in the back—sets the stage for other hilarious mishaps. Whenever Archer flounders, there are people (usually the influential men he “wanted to be”) ready to help: his father, as good at fixing problems as he is at restoring vintage cars; his stylish Uncle Paul; and his dignified grandfather Magill. In fifth grade, Archer finds he can depend on someone new: his student-teacher Mr. McLeod, who accidentally causes a lockdown when he shows up at school in his National Guard uniform. Archer gains some wisdom on his own (after befriending a visiting student from England, he concludes: “We thought he was weird. He thought we were weird. It was great. It was what multiculturalism ought to be”), but the most profound lessons about prejudice, conflict resolution, and gay rights are taught by his mentors, all-too-human heroes, whom readers will come to admire as much as Archer does. It’s an indelible portrait of what it looks like to grow up in an age of viral videos and media frenzies, undergirded by the same powerful sense of family that characterizes so much of Peck’s work. Ages 9–12. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2016
Gr 4–6—Bookmarked between two weddings, this is a story of love, family, and friendship. Beginning with wedding number one, Archer Magill recounts his elementary school days leading up to middle school and wedding number two (the present). The boy's search for and appreciation of nuanced male role models is inspiring and timely, as is his teacher's treatment of antigay bullying. A light, refreshing read, wonderfully written by the always winning Peck.

School Library Journal

There are four men Archer Magill wants to be like when he grows up: his dad, his grandpa, his Uncle Paul, and his teacher, Mr. McLeod. Narrator Michael Crouch is a natural with kid voices, and Archer sounds exactly like the sixth-grader he is. Crouch differentiates clearly between the kid and adult characters as the plot veers from touching to zany and back again. Peck’s middle-grade novel feels old-fashioned and contemporary at the same time, and nostalgic in the best way. The road trip Archer takes with his dad is just one of the scenes that perfectly capture the heart-squeezy magic of finding a real moment of connection with someone you love. Listeners will relate, whether they're all grown up or still growing. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

★ 2016-05-18
Male role models aren't a scarce commodity for Archer Magill, but when two of them fall in love, what does that mean for his comprehension of the weird world of adults? Then there's all that impending puberty stuff.Bookending his tale with two weddings (one a YouTube'd pants-splitting disaster and one a heartfelt finale with a fabulous new suit), Archer recounts his traverse from first grade to sixth, navigating family ties, school, bullies, death, marriage, and au courant political hot topics. He has a dedicated father, endearing grandfather, doting uncle, and awesome male student teacher, but that doesn't mean he's entirely sure-footed in following their confident strides. In fact, he's pretty clueless in general, something his fiery best friend, Lynette, reminds him of perpetually. It's this cluelessness that makes his journey so easy to empathize with. There's another layer to this lighthearted coming-of-age book that makes it special in the current sociopolitical climate. Said doting uncle is in love with aforementioned student teacher: it's Peck's intent to spark a discussion for young readers about same-sex marriages, a topic that standardized testing and textbooks haven't caught up with yet. Bravo. A middle-class white cast in the Midwest populates the pages, but the base of the story—navigating boyhood with positive reinforcement from friends, family, and faculty—is a broad one. A nostalgic slice of Rockwell Americana with a contemporary filling. Delicious—take a bite. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews