false 39980 14 Grandma Dowdel's back! She's just as feisty and terrifying and goodhearted as she was in Richard Peck's <I>A Long Way from Chicago</I>, and every bit as funny. In the first book, a Newbery Honor winner, Grandma's rampages were seen through the eyes of her grandson Joey, who, with his sister, Mary Alice, was sent down from Chicago for a week every summer to visit. But now it's 1937 and Joey has gone off to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps, while 15-year-old Mary Alice has to go stay with Grandma alone--for a whole year, maybe longer. From the very first moment when she arrives at the depot clutching her Philco portable radio and her cat, Bootsie, Mary Alice knows it won't be easy. And it's not. She has to sleep alone in the attic, attend a hick town school where in spite of her worn-out coat she's "the rich girl from Chicago," and be an accomplice in Grandma's outrageous schemes to run the town her own way--and do good while nobody's looking. But being Grandma's sidekick is always interesting, and by the end of the year, Mary Alice has grown to see the formidable love in the heart of her formidable Grandma. <p> Peck is at his best with these hilarious stories that rest solidly within the American literary tradition of Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Teachers will cherish them as great read-alouds, and older teens will gain historical perspective from this lively picture of the depression years in small-town America. (Ages 12 and older) <I>--Patty Campbell</I> 39678 book 2000 A Year Down Yonder total:2479|5:897|4:1006|3:458|2:94|1:24| 2479 10095 3052 437 3 2 false false Sun Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 12 17:15:45 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 24 17:43:13 -0700 2008 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 sup...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 04 16:21:50 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 16:34:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 17:09:47 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 09:32:48 -0700 2009
—Grandma Dowdel, "A Year Down Yonder", P. 79

Richard Peck certainly has a good way with words. His ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 00:21:26 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 00:36:10 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 01 19:34:31 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 19:34:38 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 01 19:16:29 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 19:19:54 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 14:00:13 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 11:05:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 10:24:41 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 14:11:04 -0700 2009 A Year Down Yonder is an odd children's book, as the main character is arguably Grandma Dowdel, and the narrator, Mary Alice, ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 08 17:36:13 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 18:06:21 -0700 2009
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...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Dec 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 15:57:45 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 16:02:53 -0800 2008 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 ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jul 24 13:32:52 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 13:33:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 19:57:29 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 13:10:00 -0700 2009 1 A Long Way From Chicago goes to stay with her grandmother in rurual Illinois during the Depression for an entire year. We get to see Grandma in full conspiratorial mode, for not only doe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 21 14:36:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 14:45:18 -0700 2009 This is more of a traditional novel format, and not a series of vinettes like A Long Way from Chicago. It picks...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 16:34:28 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 18:33:59 -0700 2009
The ideas Grandma comes up with and the methods to her madness, especially in putting some of the townspeople in their places...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 19:00:18 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 02:07:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 13:21:03 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 13:33:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 08:01:29 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 08:09:03 -0700 2009 1 The story is told by a teenage girl who had to leave her family to go li...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 10 14:21:25 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 14:22:12 -0700 2009 A Long Way from Chicago, with the sister reminiscing about the year she spent with her grandmother during the Depression when her folks had to live in one room while her dad was out of work. Aimed at a little older audience. The sister is fifteen/sixteen and she works out a romance with ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 07 18:44:33 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 07 18:46:01 -0800 2008 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 becau...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 23 08:40:43 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 08:40:49 -0700 2008 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 tig...more...]]>