Remembering Richard Peck

This Memorial Day I want to say thank you to all the men and women who have died serving our country. We remember you with love and gratitude! And I also want to say a few words about one of my literary heroes Richard Peck, who died last week. Click here to read his obituary.

As a long-time lover of middle grade fiction, Richard Peck has been one of those luminaries for me. So imagine my delight when he blurbed my first novel LEAVING GEE'S BEND! Eep! Here's what emblazoned the cover of the 2010 first hardcover edition (G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin):

"Ludelphia Bennett reaffirms the human spirit and defines survival in this beautifully stitched quilt of a novel."

I mean, really, it doesn't get any better than that! And yet... it DOES! In April of that same year, I got to meet Richard Peck. I thanked him for blurbing my book, and he gave me a big hug... and signed my book, too.

Richard said some pretty brilliant things that day. I catalogued them in a blog post "Ode to Richard Peck." I hope you will join me in remembering Richard today. What a beautiful, generous spirit. This Memorial Day and all days, I'd like to be more like him.