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Summary: My New Favorite book
Review: This was really a great book That I enjoyed reading over and over. The book was intresting to see how people live back then. I liked exploring the colorfull characters in this book and reading about them and all their incrediable adventures.I enjoyed reading this book so much it is now my new favorite book. I defanintly recomend it.
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Summary: Great book for all Generations!
Review: This book is not only funny but is also heartwarming. If you are looking for a book to share with your family, this is it!
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Summary: Wonderful Sequel! Grandma Dowdel hasn't lost her touch!!
Review: The Depression has just ended and Mr. Dowdel has lost his job. They have to move to a small apartment and their son, Joey, who is seventeen is sent to the Civilian Conservation Corp. to plant trees. Their daughter, Mary Alice,who is 15, however is sent to live with Grandma Dowdel until the family has enough money. All the way from Chicago to Southern Illinois. Mary Alice's two touches to modern civilization are her cat, Bootsie and her radio. Living in Grandma Dowdels house is embarassing, yet you would never want to miss her crazy antics! The prequel told the story through Joey's eyes. Now you get to know how Mary Alice copes with it all. In all, A Year Down Yonder, is bigger, funnier and heaps better to the wonderful prequel!
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Summary: A great read!
Review: I read this book because both my son and wife read it first and liked it. I thought it was very well written.
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Summary: A Year of Wonder
Review: This is a wonderful book. This is a wonderful story with marvelous charcters. Although this story stands on its own you may want to start with the first book about this family A Long Way from Chicago-either way do read it and anything else Richard Peck has written. Don't just save this for the advanced reader because aadults will enjoy this as a read aloud book. I loved it!
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Summary: Not just for kids
Review: If you want to laugh till you can't breathe you have to read both of Peck's books about the visits to Grandma's. This is a book that definately should be shared with young adults and parents. Grandma is a charcater unlike any other you will meet, and full of surprises. Read A Long Way From Chicago first, then follow it up with this latest, you won't be disappointed. I hope Peck writes another , maybe about Grandma growing up so we can see how she developed into the indomitable character she is.
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Summary: back in time
Review: From the opening paragraph I was taken back to another era, a time when soda was only 10 cents. It is 1937, and 14-year-old Mary Alice is to spend a year with her Grandmother Dowdel. This book is a great follow-up to A Long Way From Chicago. Like Peck's earlier book, this is written as a series of stories and events that drew me into the life and people of this small town. Through the eyes of Mary Alice, I really began to 'see' what living through the Depression might have been like for many people. This book, rich with humor, is also a good book to read aloud.
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Summary: Why isn't my grandma like her?
Review: When I first read A Long Way From Chicago, the prequel to this book, it was the first book I had read by Richard Peck. I read it because it was the Newbery Honor. Now there is A Year Down Yonder, the sequel to A Long Way From Chicago. Mary Alice Dowdel visits her feisty grandmother for a year, and learns a few tricks of her trade. The subtle humor and sometimes out of this "worldness" make this book about as enjoyable as books can get!!
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Summary: Not all grandmas are soft and fuzzy!
Review: This is the latest Newbery award winner, written by longtime 'tweenage and young adult novelist Peck. This one is also the sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. Set in post-Depression, pre-World War II downstate Illinois, this droll tale of a young girl's year with her grandmother is well deserving of the accolades showered upon it by critics and public alike. The characters here, like in this reviewer's favorite previous Peck book, Secrets of the Shopping Mall, are amazingly and vividly drawn. The grandmother, while more the coolly prickly sort, rather than warm and fuzzy, is truly memorable with her subtle, backhanded approach to human relationships. Not only will the scene of the DAR Washington's birthday bash with its cherry tarts, punch spiked with Old Turkey bourbon, and raucous revelations have you rolling on the floor in audacious laughter, but will also linger long after you've finished this slender volume. Newbery winners always tend to touch the heart; sometimes with bittersweetness; this one does so as well, but with a refreshingly nuanced glimpse at smalltown life, be it rural Illinois or Versailles, Indiana.
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Summary: Just As Good, Maby Better!
Review: I was almost hesitent to read A YEAR DOWN YONDER. I really liked A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO, and about half the time, sequils aren't as good as the first book. But by the time I read one page, I was sure that this book would be just as good, or better. I was right.A YEAR DOWN YONDER is about 15 year old Mary Alice. Beacause of the Great Depression, Mary Alice has to go live with her grandmother until her family gets back on track. Sounds boring? Well you don't know Mary Alice's grandmother. Her grandmother is a feisty, trigger happy, cunning person who will play the meanest tricks, and do the nicest things in her own feisty way. I really enjoyed it, and was a little sad when the last chaper was finished. My only complaint is that the last chapter doesn't really have to be there, and A YEAR DOWN YONDER might have been better without it. It wasn't as funny as A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO, but I liked it anyway, and even though I have almost nothing in comon with Mary Alice, sometimes I thought I was her. I would defintely reccomend A YEAR DOWN YONDER to anyone.
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