book data
2,052 ratings,
4.09
average rating, 360 reviews
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published
December 30th 2002
(first published 2000)
by Puffin
binding
Paperback, 144 pages
literary awards
Newbery Medal 2001
isbn
0142300705
(isbn13: 9780142300701)
description
Grandma Dowdel's back! She's just as feisty and terrifying and goodhearted as she was in Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago, and every bit as fu...more
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Newbery Award...: Introductions | 23 | 109 | 29 days ago, 07:38PM | |
| YA Book Council: Notepad for Future Books | 45 | 317 | 05/17/2009 09:01PM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2,479)
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5 stars (755)
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3 stars (370)
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2 stars (71)
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1 star (19)
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avg 4.09
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in October, 2008
I think this is a first. Never before have I read a sequel before reading the original novel. (At least as far as I can recall.) (The Discworld books don't count. They aren't organized in a proper order, are they? You can't call a book a sequel unless it's called a sequel on the cover.) (Well, I suppose I can make an exception if it has a number on the spine.) I usually hold out for the original, but in this case my daughter's curriculum assigned her to read this volume and, unlike my daughter, ...more
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This book is about a girl named Mary Alice. Mary Alice loves her life with her family in Chicago but "disaster" strikes as she has to live with her grandmother for a year. This "disaster" turns out to be such an amazing experiance that Mary Alice wants to stay there forever. Before all this happens, Mary Alice encounters a couple of really disasterous (this time not with " ") scenes. First, she gets away with not giving the school bully money, and then she ge...more
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Read in April, 2009
"There's different kinds of people in the world...There's them who'll invite you to join their bunch. Then there's them who'll pay you for your work."
—Grandma Dowdel, "A Year Down Yonder", P. 79
Richard Peck certainly has a good way with words. His descriptions of country life are both vivid and realistic, but I think that he may have outdone himself with the sharp clarity used in his description of what it was like to listen to the radio back i...more
—Grandma Dowdel, "A Year Down Yonder", P. 79
Richard Peck certainly has a good way with words. His descriptions of country life are both vivid and realistic, but I think that he may have outdone himself with the sharp clarity used in his description of what it was like to listen to the radio back i...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Megan by:
my cousin and my teacherrecommends it for: People who like an adventure
My Reading teacher introduced my class to this amazing book back in the beginning of the school year. My cousin had read it before and I'd thought about reagin it, but never got around to doing it. But this was just SUCH a great book that I recomend it to pretty much EVERYONE in the entire world. There's also a really funny part towards the ending of the middle to all you people who like to laugh-out-loud.
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What is not to like about an author that feels this way about reading ...
In his autobiography Anonymously Yours (Beech Tree, 1995 ISBN 0688137024. Order Info. Review.), he puts that dedication in this form:
"I read because one life isn't enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody;
I read because the words that build the story become mine, to build my life;
I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings; I'm just beginning myself, a...more
In his autobiography Anonymously Yours (Beech Tree, 1995 ISBN 0688137024. Order Info. Review.), he puts that dedication in this form:
"I read because one life isn't enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody;
I read because the words that build the story become mine, to build my life;
I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings; I'm just beginning myself, a...more
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Read in December, 2008
This is the sequel to Peck's A Long Way From Chicago. I loved this book! This one is from the point of view of Mary Alice which I thought would fall flat but I was rivoted. Grandma Dowdell is a tour de force who was surprising at every turn. Once again, Richard Peck brought tears to my eyes at the final chapter. Great read!
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Task G Alternative Assignment
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grades: Ages 9-12
Awards: Newbery Award
The book is a sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. The year is 1937, and fifteen-year-old Mary Alice has been shipped from Chicago to stay for a year with her Grandma Dowdel because her family is having financial trouble during a new recession. The town is described as a hick-town. Grandma Dowdel is a large, raw, and smart woman. She immediately sends Mary Alice’s cat to ...more
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grades: Ages 9-12
Awards: Newbery Award
The book is a sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. The year is 1937, and fifteen-year-old Mary Alice has been shipped from Chicago to stay for a year with her Grandma Dowdel because her family is having financial trouble during a new recession. The town is described as a hick-town. Grandma Dowdel is a large, raw, and smart woman. She immediately sends Mary Alice’s cat to ...more
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Genre: Historical Fiction
Awards:
2001 Newbery Medal Winner
A Year Down Yonder is a wonderful, light-hearted book about one girl's stay with her grandmother. Mary Alice is a fifteen year girl who was growing up in Chicago in the middle of the depression. When funds become so tight that her parents cannot afford for her to stay with them any longer, they decide that Mary Alice should go and live with her Grandma Dowdel for a year in the country. Mary Alice had visited her gra...more
Awards:
2001 Newbery Medal Winner
A Year Down Yonder is a wonderful, light-hearted book about one girl's stay with her grandmother. Mary Alice is a fifteen year girl who was growing up in Chicago in the middle of the depression. When funds become so tight that her parents cannot afford for her to stay with them any longer, they decide that Mary Alice should go and live with her Grandma Dowdel for a year in the country. Mary Alice had visited her gra...more
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Read in April, 2004
recommended to Brad by:
Newberry winnerrecommends it for: girls around 11-14
This is the second in a series of books (see "A Long Way from Chicago") but I read this book first. It stood well on its own and I really enjoyed it.
It's the story of a teenage girl from Chicago who is sent to live with her Grandma Dowdel in a rural Illinois town in 1937. Though 15 year-old Mary Alice has visited her grandmother for a week at a time during summer vacations in the past, she's not prepared for the antics associated with her grandmother's unconventional appro...more
It's the story of a teenage girl from Chicago who is sent to live with her Grandma Dowdel in a rural Illinois town in 1937. Though 15 year-old Mary Alice has visited her grandmother for a week at a time during summer vacations in the past, she's not prepared for the antics associated with her grandmother's unconventional appro...more
03/17/09
Austin Merrill
added it
A girl goes to live with her grandpa in a little town. She finds out that he grandma is scared of her in the whole town. she goes to the one and only school in this town and soon already has a eniemy. The girl told her she owd her a dollor. She lived with her grandma for a wile and soon got her crush on the new kid in school. She had a chance to go back to chocago and but she deniened it and married the guy she had a crush on.
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Read in January, 2002
A fantastic book about a big city Chicago girl who goes to live with her grandmother during the depression, when it is too expensive to stay with her parents. Her grandma lives in a VERY small town, and the story is full of insane adventures the two of them have together - along with the wonderful way their relationship grows and develops.
**This book is made even better if you read "A Long Way from Chicago" first.
**This book is made even better if you read "A Long Way from Chicago" first.
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Read in June, 2006
The few moments of emotion caught me by surprise. Lots of laughs, a few tear-jerking lines. The city kids learn to understand their plug-chawing grammy in this book. A great read. Although the relationships are just being developed in the prequel, "A Long Way From Chicago," I recommend reading that book before this one to get some background. A quick read for adults, and highly recommended.
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Read in March, 2009
This was such a fun book to "read". Actually, my husband read it to me. It was funny and touching and wonderful. I have found a new favorite author. I think everyone ought to read it. It is written primarily for young teens, I think, but I think all would enjoy it.
Another wonderful book by this author and a sequel to "A Long Way from Chicago." Definite must read!!
Another wonderful book by this author and a sequel to "A Long Way from Chicago." Definite must read!!
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2009
I enjoyed reading this book about the escapades a teenage girl has when, in 1937, her father loses his job and home and she has to leave her parents in Chicago and go live in the country with her eccentric grandmother. There are crazy outings in the night, and tender moments when Mary Alice sees the goodness behind her larger-than-life grandmother's tough exterior.
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I love Richard Peck. This is one of the few, if not the only, Newbery Award-winners that is a sequel, though its predecessor A Long Way From Chicago is also fantastic. I loved reading about Mary Alice's adventures during her year's stay with Grandma Dowdel. Absolutely hilarious stuff here. I read it in 8th grade and it's stayed with me!
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I like Richard Peck. I feel like most of the historical fiction novels I read are either dry or serious. His characters are hilarious and he draws you into the story. This one took a little longer to get into, but I enjoyed it. Also, it put some perspective on what life might have been like for high school kids in the late 1930s.
Love it!!! I was surprised to find this little nugget on my kid's book shelf. I started reading it and didn't stop. Then I encouraged my daughter (11) to read it and she loved it too. She really loved it when I read it to her as she had a hard time understanding some of the outdated words used during the depression.
It was witty, sharp, very funny and heartwarming. It did not have a lot of depth to the (excellent) writing, but there was a lot of depth that you could get from it. A stor...more
It was witty, sharp, very funny and heartwarming. It did not have a lot of depth to the (excellent) writing, but there was a lot of depth that you could get from it. A stor...more
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Read in February, 2009
Just a series of funny, folksy vignettes set in "hicktown" Illinois in the hard times of 1937. Mary Alice leaves Chicago to live with her Grandmother for a year while her dad finds work. Grandma is the main subject here: a quirky, indomitable character, menacing but warm too, with her own sense of justice.
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I enjoyed reading this sequel to "A Long Way Over Chicago." Out of necessity, Mary Alice has to go live with Grandma Dowdel, but this time she is alone. Of course, Grandma Dowdel is up to her usual shenanigans which leads to lots of laughs. Mary Alice begins her stay feeling uncomfortable, but as the story progresses she builds a strong connection with her and even finds that she is a bit like her. This is a sweet enjoyable story that really makes me miss my grandparents.
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Read in January, 2008
The sequel to A Long Way from Chicago and also a Newberry award book. Grandma continues to be hilarious and her granddaughter, Mary Alice, is so lucky to have this crazy, small town woman to help build her character. There's a little romance in this one, very heart warming. Very funny.
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