A Year Down Yonder

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Summary: another great tale from Richard Peck
Review: After reading A Long Way From Chicago, I couldn't wait to get my hands on A Year Down Yonder...and was satisfied from start to finish...I love children's literature (I'm an adult) and Richard Pecks' books are wonderful, both to read aloud, to oneself, and to listen to via audio tape or CD. This particular duo, starring Grandma Dowdel and her life in rural Illinois, is soo good, I wish for another installment! Read it...listen to it...but don't pass it by if you love a good yarn, a bit of history, and some fun besides. I sent both books on tape to one daughter, read them both to my grand daughter and listened to them in the car while we were going on vacation...we were hooked and still are...

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Summary: A Time Of The Depression
Review: Hi!I just finished reading Newbery Award winning A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. I personally was suprised when I finished the first ten pages it was nothing like i suspected! When I started i made some predictions and it was nothing like I imagined! I am also reading the sequel to A Year Down Yonder, A Long Way From Chicago so I can find out about it to see if it was anything like that. If you happen to make it to a library near you go ask your librarian and before you start reading it make some predictions. I guarantee it won't be anything like you predicted. If you start getting bored towards the end don't take it back. Stay with it. Trust me it will be fasinating!!!

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Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: This book was one of the best books I have ever read. It had some hard to follow parts, but once you picked it up there was no turning back. The book made me laugh and cry.

A girl named Mary-Alice has some problems. Her parents are broke and they send her to her grandma's. Well her grandma is no ordinary person. Some may suspect her as a man. ( at least she acts like one.) In the story the cops are even afarid of her.
You think that's bad, just wait until you hear about her school life.

Can you imagine changing your whole lifestyle in a few short minutes? Well Mary-Alice did and I guarantee this book is for you.

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Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: A Year Down Yonder was a interesting book because it has a very good setting. It was written by Richard Peck. This is a maybe book. It has magnificent setting but it is a slow book. It is about a girl that has to live with her grandma because of the Depression . If you like slow, funny books this is the book you are looking for.

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Summary: Mary Alice's Adventure
Review: I've just finished Richard Peck's book A Year Down Yonder and it was probably one of the best books I have ever read. I enjoyed the way he talked about the characters and the way he just wrote it. It is pretty funny too. So if you want to read a good book get Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder.

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Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I really enjoyed this book because it was funny. This book made me wish that I had a grandma like that. There are two main characters, Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel. The character I liked the best is Grandma Dowel. I liked her because most of the people are scared of her. She can be a sweet old lady, but she gets around being a mean woman. You can learn a lot from her and that is why I like her. The best part I think is when this boy, Royce McNab, came to school. Carline Lovejoy liked him as did everyone else at that school. Mary Alice played a trick on Carline by making valentines for her best friend. She made one be from Royce, knowing it would make Carline jealous. The ending of this book was shocking and funny. You need to read the book and see how it ends.

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Summary: a page turner
Review: I enjoyed this book because it was funny. The main character was Mary Alice but, I liked granny the most out of all the characters.
The best part of the book for me was when it was around Halloween time and, Granny and Mary Alice are waiting for the trick or treaters to show up. there in the out house wating and Granny has set a trap for them she put an invisible wire and made glue to dump on them. That part of the book was pretty funny. The end of the book turns out to be something that you wouldn't expect but, you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

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Summary: A Must Read! Great Fiction Based on Fact!
Review: A Year Down Yonder has just the right message for young people today who often ask their grandparents "What was it like back then?" Wonderful characters, true-to-life and delightful adventures. A must read for all young people and great for classroom chapter reading!

Evelyn Horan - author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl, Book One

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Summary: an authentic teenager from a time long ago.
Review: When Mary Alice was a kid, she visited her Grandma Dowdel each summer in a little southern Illinois town & her days were packed with surprises & memories. Now she's fifteen, the Depression of the 1930s has hit her family hard & they're splitting up.

She must leave her brother, mother & father & go stay for a whole year with her Grandma who is a huge woman without an ounce of sentimentality. She keeps a loaded ancient rifle behind her front door, has a magical way of making money, a surefire way of dealing with Trick or Treaters & a snake in her attic!

Written in the voice of an exasperated & quickwitted youngster, A Year Down Yonder is fast, funny & touching. Mary Alice learns a lot about relationships, loyalty & living well when times are hard. She also meets the boy who will, in time, become her husband.

This book has an authentic feel & give us a fascinating glimpse of a time long ago. As an example of Richard Peck's craft, & he's written a lot of books, it's very well done!

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Summary: This book is funny!
Review: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck is about the humorous adventures of Mary Alice, an average 15-year old girl from Chicago, and her wacky grandmother, Grandma Dowdel. Mary Alice has to live with Grandma Dowdel for a year because her parents had to move into a tiny apartment and don't have enough room for her. The story takes place in Grandma's country town in 1937.

One scene I thought was funny happens on Halloween night when some boys come to wreck Grandma's outhouse (or privy) but she is ready for them. She sets a trap for them and pours glue on a boy's head. When the boys are gone, Grandma looks around the yard and finds a knife with one of the boy's initials on it. The next day Grandma goes to Mary Alice's school for a Halloween party and serves pie. Mary Alice and Grandma see the boy that Grandma poured glue on. When he comes for a piece of pie, Grandma gets out his knife and cuts him a piece with it. He is scared and angry and runs away.

I liked this book because a lot of crazy things happen such as after an artist rents a room from Grandma. One Sunday when Mary Alice and her boyfriend are doing homework, the artist is painting a naked lady in the attic. A big snake that Grandma has to keep birds away falls on the naked lady while she is posing. She runs screaming down the stairs, out the door and down the street. When Grandma sees what has happened, this is what she does.

'"That's too good a show to keep to ourselves," Grandma said. With the thought, she was through the front door and out in the front yard. Planting her house shoes, she jammed the Winchester into her shoulder, aimed high, and squeezed off both barrels. The world exploded. Birds rose shrieking from the trees, and the whole town woke with a start.'

The Grandma Dowdel character is hilarious. Grandma always does things she is not supposed to do and is not afraid of anyone or anything. Here is another example from the story. After making the town's men pay unreasonably high prices for soup to make money for Armistice Day, one of the Auxiliary ladies says this to Grandma:

"I'm here to tell you that you're twice as bald-faced and brazen and, yes, I have to say shameless as the rest of us girls put together. In the presence of these witnesses I'm on record for saying you outdo the most two-faced, two-fisted shortchanger, flimflam artist and full-time extortionist anybody ever saw working this part of the country. And all I have to say is, God bless you for your good work"....... "Did your late husband go to war?" "Only with me," Grandma said, "and he lost every time."

If you are a person who likes to laugh, likes good storytelling and wild characters you will like this book.