What is the author's style in Are You in the House Alone? by Richard Peck?

Much of the language is contemporary, although there are some New England and Puritan phrases that come into the story. Some of the language used describes the type of housing specific to Colonial New England. For example, many of the houses Gail describes refer to Williamsburg this or that, clapboard, Cape Code, etc. Written in the 1970s, the author uses contemporary language, so the reader can move through the story with ease. By defining colloquialisms used as part of the sentence structure, the reader is not required to find the meaning in the dictionary.