This story’s grandma does not exactly fit the mold of the classic plump, white-haired, cookie-baking character used in other stories or commercial ads. Grandma Dowdel has a rather tough and leather-like persona that fascinates her two grandchildren each summer as they learn more and more about how she thinks.
Through these summer experiences, the reader learns about the Great Depression, small town America, and gets a glimpse of Chicago during its gangster-plagued years. More than history, howeve More...

Richard Peck’s, A Long Way from Chicago is the first book in the trilogy about larger than life character Grandma Dowdel and her grandchildren, Joey and Mary Alice. (The second is A Year Down Yonder and the last is A Season Of Gifts.) Joey and Mary Alice are sent from Chicago to spend the summer each year with their Grandma Dowdel in rural Illinois. The book immediately grabs the reader’s attention: “You wouldn’t think we needed to leave Chicago to see a dead body. We were growing up in there ba More...

I liked this little book. It was funny. It's about two kids from Chicago who go and visit their Grandma in the country every summer, and how she is exactly like my funny Grandma (aka "Granny") in North Carolina.

My sister recommended this book to me after she read it in her book club. I am a book club virgin. (Meaning, I have never actually belonged to a book club, or attended a live meeting, but I DO love talking about books on this website - oh my gosh, is that like the dorky guys who never act More...

Joey and Mary Alice's Grandma ain't your sweet little granny. She's a tough old woman who makes her own soap, not afraid to use a shotgun, illegally traps fish and steals boats. She's outrageous and moody; gruff and caring. Joey and Mary Alice visit her for a week each summer in the country--a far cry from their regular life in Chicago. At first the siblings drag their feet to Grandma's, but after a few summers they can't wait to go and see what antics Grandma will get in to next.

Loved this! Gra More...

A great book! Very funny. People who live in or grew up in small towns will recognize something of their lives in Grandma's small Illinois town where everyone knows everyone's business--"sometimes before it happens." Grandma herself is an unforgettable character. Crotchety and aloof from the rest of the town, shunned by most of her neighbors (until they need her help), Grandma gets the best of snobby society women, out-of-town interlopers, Halloween pranksters & theives, and school bullies b More...

WHERE EVERYBODY'S PRIVATE AFFAIRS ARE PUBLIC PROPERTY!

What a fun read! Peck presents 8 short tales which span several summers in rural Illinois during the Depression, when two kids make annual visits to their eccentric Grandmother. Narrated by the boy (two years old than his sister), these outrageous yarns create a wonderful atmosphere of wacky individualism and family bonding.

It would be hard to find a literary granny as feisty, resourceful and fearless of authority as Grandma. Things are nev More...

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
A book review by Ginger Dawn Harman

Imagine it is summer 1929 and you live in Chicago. The old days of Al Capone, Bugs Moran, and Prohibition are the headline new interest of the day. You are nine and your younger sister is seven. Oh by the way, you just found out that you are being sent to your Grandma Dowdel’s home in the country for the summer. There is plenty of time to anticipate the summer ahead while on the Wabash Railroad’s crack Blue Bird train. Get More...

Recently I have read a book titled A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck. The book takes place in the 1930's during the time of the great depression when siblings Joey and Mary Alice spend a week at their grandma's house every summer for nine summers. They thought spending a week at their grandma's house in her sleepy town might be boring. But it turns out that grandma's town is a lot less sleepy than Joey and Mary Alice thought. They help their grandma do everything from trespassing, to seein More...

Joey and Mary Alice are two city-going kids when one summer, their parents decide to send them to visit their grandmother in a “middle-of-nowhere type town, somewhere between Chicago and St. Louis. Throughout the book, Joey tells us about their exciting adventures - which are intimidating at first, as they don’t know Grandma Dowdel all that well - but become bonding experiences between them all. As the years go by and each summer passes, Joey learns a lot about himself through these experiences. More...

Shelby Schumaker 12-1-12
English Honors 9 4BD Book Review November
For book review in November, I read a Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. The book’s copyright date is 1998 and the genre is historical fiction.
In the beginning of the book there are multiple events that occurred in the book I can relate to. On page 4, the book states, “Dad said Mary Alice and I were getting to the age when we could travel to Chicago on our own,” One way I can relate to this part in the book is that I have als More...

In A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck, the narrator named Joey tells humorous stories about the weeklong summer visits that he and his sister Alice had with their unconventional grandmother. Joey and Alice—who are from Chicago—visit Grandma Dowdel each summer in her small rural town from 1929 to 1935. Each visit is one adventure after another with their Grandma who has her own way of doing things. Grandma Dowdel is a larger than life type of character who overshadows everyone. She is an ol More...

A Grandma with a shotgun, a boy in a plane, and his city-slicker sister. This fantastic, grabbing-you story is sure to put you into the novel like Al Capone in Alcatraz. The story takes place during The Great Depression in a seemingly normal Illinois town. The story spans over seven summers, each one more exciting than the last. There are three main characters in the book. One is Grandma Dowdel, another is Joey and the last one is Mary Alice. Grandma Dowdel is a larger than life, sort of scary, More...

Richard Peck weaves a hilarious tale of two kids in the eary '30s who are forced to visit their wacky grandma every summer. Each chapter highlights one summer of adventures, and Grandma Dowdel's mischievious nature and slap-on-the-back, down-to-earth ways are immediately endearing to the reader. With each year, Mary Alice and Joey grow to appreciate Grandma Dowdel and their experiences with her, which include housing a corpse in the living room, playing pranks on neighborhood teenagers, stealing More...

Joey and Mary Alice are two city kids from depression era Chicago who have to spend a week each summer with their Grandma Dowdel. The children are sure that only boredom awaits them in Grandma's small country town. But every year, Grandma Dowdel manages to surprise the kids with something unforgettable.

With Joey narrating, each chapter is an episode from the yearly visits. Grandma Dowdel has no use for the daily dramas of small time life, and generally tries to keep to herself. But she always ma More...

Undeniably, A Long Way from Chicago and its sequel, A Year Down Yonder, are the two funniest and most entertaining stories I have EVER read!!! Positive reviews from people of all ages peaked my curiosity…

Were they right! Grandma Dowdel is an unforgettable character that rocks the little hick town she lives in – on purpose, and WITH purpose to make a point. Borrowing a few words from the inside flap: “ …this richly entertaining story is masterfully interwoven with tales of moonlit adventures, lov More...

This is a novel in short stories told by a boy from Chicago who goes (with his younger sister Mary Alice) to visit their Grandma Dowdel for a week every summer from 1929 to 1935. The rural setting and Grandma's sneaky, roundabout exercises in justice or charity reminded me of Twain in Tom and Huck mode. Peck does a wonderful job of describing situations so the reader either is a few steps ahead or behind the narrator. In reading this to my kids I would sometimes pause and then they would shout, More...

Publication: 1998

Grade/Age: Grades 4-8

Annotation: Every summer Joey and his sister, Mary Alice, spend a week with their larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois during the 1930s.

Themes: Coming of age, the Great Depression, country life, humor,

Ways to use the book:

Social Studies - Have students make a timeline of national events that occurred between 1929 and 1935. Then have each student select one of the events to research in detail. How did the events of the nation during this time affec More...

A long way from Chicago is how Joey and Mary Alice felt when they went to visit their Grandma each summer. She lived in a small town in Illinois and although it wasn't really that far from Chicago, it was like a whole different world to Joey and Mary Alice.
Besides that, Grandma was strange. She didn't talk much and she didn't seem to like the other townsfolk; but she always provided amusement and surprises for Joey and Mary Alice. By their fourth visit they actually looked forward to seeing her More...

This is a book that was just fun. It told the story of a boy and his sister and the 7 summers (1 week visits) they spent with their unorthodox grandmother, Mrs. Dowdel. The books is divided in chapters according to summers. Mrs. Dowdel is an interesting character; definitely different from any other grandmother I've ever read. What I liked best about the book is that there were really no lessons to learn. It was just several funny stories put together to paint a picture of a small Illinois town More...

Joey and his sister Mary Alice spend a week each summer at their Grandma Dowdel’s Illinois house, where their larger-than-life Grandma alternately ignores and instigates the townsfolk, cleverly outwitting them all. An excellent book whose humor I enjoyed. I highly recomend it.

At our last mock Newbery meeting, someone posed the question, “Will the committee select a funny book?” Dead End in Norvelt is hilarious and it’s on our reading list for this weekend’s meeting but when was the last time a s More...

(historical fiction)
This is an amazing book! I really enjoyed reading this book full of humor and adventure. In this book the narrator Joey and his sister, Alice, travel to a small town every year to visit their Grandmother. They usually dread having to take the ride to visit their grandmother and would rather spend their summer months elsewhere but as time goes on the brother & sister become part of a quite fun adventure! Now see the grandmother in this book isn't the typical Red Hat Socie More...

My group read the book " A Long Way From Chicago". I really liked this book, it has adventure and fun stories that will help keep children intrigued and interested. This book is about two children (Joey and Mary Alice) who are brother and sister. They spend the summers visiting their Grandmother in a small Illinois town. Their Grandmother is far from normal and they soon realize that while staying with her. I would recommend this book for grades fourth to eighth. The book takes place during the More...

This book was a little hard to get into at first but as I continued reading my interest was heightened. The stories were told by a young boy, and his views on his grandma and his surroundings were hilarious. My favorite thing about this book was the grandma. She was the most interesting character, with each chapter I came to love the grandma more and more. I was always wondering what she would do next, I loved the unpredictability of her character. I think part of the reason I enjoyed this book More...

This book will always hold a special place in my heart. I read it aloud to my mother in her declining years...and she LOVED it. It's the story of a brother and sister who go to live with their grandma for a time during the Great Depression. Enough about the story. You know how I hate to summarize.

Each chapter has some sort of closure, so it was a perfect read-aloud book. We could share a chapter, then pick it up days later. Many of the things the author wove into the story from the depression e More...

A 1999 Newbery Honor award winning book that I absolutely loved!

This is a touching, memorable walk down memory lane told from the perspective of 15 year old Joey Dowdel. This book was written before Peck's 2001 Newbery Medal winner A Year Down Yonder.

Each chapter is a separate story of a summer spent with Joey and his sister Alice who travel from Chicago to rural Illinois to visit their down and out, no frills, salt-of-the earth grandmother.

As I read these stories spanning seven wonderful summer More...

This fictional book, prequel to "A Year Down Yonder," is a fabulous story about Joey and Mary Alice Dowdel's summers spent with Grandma in her small town located somewhere between Chicago and St. Louis. Most grandkids enjoy time spent with their grandmas but most grandmas aren't the most feared person in town with a 12gague shotgun, perfect aim and claim a trigger-happy finger. Now, not to give the wrong impression of Grandma, she is not the harsh, rough and tumble woman she she claims to be and More...

“You wouldn’t think we’d have to leave Chicago to see a dead body.” P.3 This is how adolescent Joey and Mary Alice Dowdel feel about visiting their aging Grandma who lives outside the city because they suspect their parents want to take a month long fishing trip in Wisconsin. At the beginning of the Great Depression in a small town, there is not much for Joey and Mary Alice to do besides to chores for their Grandma and jump rope. Over the next few summers, Joey and Mary Alice will realize that More...

This book is really good! I loved the plot and its lesson is great. It teaches kids or adults that anywhere you go you can always find something to do. It remindes me of when i was in Washington State and we were staying in a log cabbin with nothing to do but sit and watch stuff. Luckily my parents had broughten a video camera with tapes that had some of my favorite shows because there was no TV. Later that week my parents found a big ball that was bigger than me ( I was about 3 years old ) and More...

I was very pleased with this reading being my first Richard Peck novel. Known for his historical fiction writing, Peck tells the story of a boy traveling through the Illinois countryside with his sister to visit their grandmother around the time of the Great Depression.
My first favorite part of this novel were the great examples of dialogue, representative of vernacular during the time period. When discussing this book with my colleagues, apparently this book has been used my the seventh grade More...

Ahhhh! This was so good! I chose it because I wanted something that both Jake and I would enjoy for a quick road trip (Hence, "The Treasure Map of Boys" will have to wait).

It was perfect. Funny at times that we both burst out laughing. Awesome sense of place and time, wonderful characters, entertaining stories. We both so thoroughly enjoyed it. I must admit, I dozed off towards the end of the book. So I asked Jake to tell me the ending. As he explained the scene, I got all teary-eyed right there More...