Good Conversation! A Talk with Richard Peck

This short interview with YA author Richard Peck is one of those video anomalies: despite the fact that it suffers from amateur-itis in almost all technical areas, it is warmly recommended. Peck, author of such adolescent bestsellers as Are You in the House Alone?, Remembering the Good Times, and Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, is an engaging conversationalist, and beautifully overcomes the video's flat production values. He explains his writing process and research techniques, shows us around his Manhattan apartment, reads from his work, tells us where he gets his ideas and how we can write to him, and underscores the importance of reading, especially for those who desire a career in writing. In lesser hands, these details might have been lackluster or even boring, but you've got to respect a man who tells us that he is lucky because he can easily visit his readers, in that they are all "institutionalized," i.e., still in schools, and explains that the theme of each and every one of his books is "you will never grow up until you declare your independence from your peers." I would have liked Peck's interviewer to have provided a more complete biographical sketch at the video's beginning, and a complete bibliography at its end; but despite these faults, this is recommended for Peck fans, institutionalized or otherwise, and for anyone studying the creative-writing process. Also newly available in the series: Johanna Hurwitz. Aud: I, J, H, P. (K. Glaser)