A Year Down Yonder

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Summary: a year down yonder
Review: In this book, Mary Alice moves from Chicago to the coutry side where grandma lives. Mary Alice has to move because the family is too poor to support her.
When Mary Alice moves down to live with her grandma, she has to find a new school. In the new school, she meets a girl named Mildred. Mildred is a little bit of a bully.Do you think Mary Alice ever became friends with Mildred?
Soon after school started, the whole town began to get ready for Halloween.In Chicago, Halloween was not as important as in grandma's town. Halloween was very important because in a small town people look foward to holidays.
In the school, a Christmas play was about to be performed. The school had a Chritmas play every year. When they finally performed the Christmas play, it was a blast and everybody had a great time.
Mary Alice's grandma was so out-dated she got a make over. She was looking much brtter after she was made over.
Summer was fun down there because there is no school and people can do anything for a couple of months. Still, Mary Alice did not like living at grandmas house.Do you think she stayed at grandmas house very long?
I liked this book because it showed how Mary Alice had to adjust to living with her grandmother. I can relate to this because nine years ago my grandmother came to live with my family. It takes a lot of getting used to having your grandmother around all the time.

Rating:
Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: A city girl named Mary Alice, moves in with her rigged, cunning Grandmother in the horribly small country town of Wabash, Illinois. Because of the Depression , Mary Alice is sent to live there while her family goes through their own rough time in Chicago. She is forced to adapt to the totally new life style of her grandmother which some would not wish on their worst enemies. Her grandmother has a very rugged way of going about things, that creates quite a stir in this little community. Before long, Mary Alice gets accustomed to her grandmothers tricks and schemes against the towns people and realizes country life isn't that bad after all.

I couldn't put this book down the first time I read it because the author writes about their adventures so vividly and exciting. Each trick they play on the town keeps the reader in suspense for the next clever and humorous adventures to come. This book is a laugh-out-loud kind of book so be prepared.

This book would be a great book for children to understand the struggles in forming a good relationship between Grandchildren and Grandparents.

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Summary: A Year Down Yonder - - A Wonderful Book- -WE LOVED IT!!
Review: A historical fiction book designed for children around the
fifth grade, it is a wonderful story of how a "rich
Chicago girl," Mary Alice, is forced to go live with her
grandmother in rural Illinois after her father looses his
job during the Great Depression. Thinking such destiny
could be nothing short of sheer misery, Mary Alice dreads
her trip to live with crazy Grandma Dowdel. Throughout the
book, however, she goes through various adventures-a
tornado, Halloween pranks, Christmas surprises, club
fundraisers, and even a lesson in love-to discover that
her Grandmother and the sleepy rural town is full of love
and compassion that was often lost in the big city lights of
Chicago. Mary Alice learns that even when she leaves the
small rural town, she'll forever carry the heart of her
often intimidating, but sweet and genuine, grandmother with
her. A very lovely story with an incrediblyhappy ending!
This book helps children appreciate that times during the
Great Depression were not easy on anyone and that, many
times, people had to make due with what they had. It
focuses on what brings real satisfaction and happiness into
people's lives. This fine piece of children's
literature could be used with parents and teachers to
promote the study of social interactions, history, literary
characteristics, and changes in technology and
communication. Teachers especially would find the book's
detailed style of writing easy to incorporate activities

across the curriculum, including history, geography, math,
science, and the arts.

Rating:
Summary: A book for children THAT adults will love
Review: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck was read to "ME" by my ten year old Granddaughter while I was visiting with her.
What a fabulous book.......yes, this children's book will make you laugh at the comments about Grandma; this book will teach you how "grand" is the difference between all of US; this book makes your mind wonder to your own childhood memories of your Grandma.
At the end I cried...........YEP!! I cried.
A Year Down Yonder is a short book with a BIG BIG PUNCH to your heart!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: A Year Down Yonder takes place in 1937 and Mary Alice's life is turned upside down due to the recession. Her dad loses his job in Chicago and she has to go stay with her feisty grandmother in a small hick-town. Grandma Dowdel is an isolated woman, but one thing Mary Alice does know about her grandmother is she never knows what kind of scheme she will plan next. As this grandmother and granddaughter spend time together, they experience some interesting episodes and develop a loving relationship. Mary Alice also discovers that behind these outlandish schemes Grandma Dowdel has a good motive to help other people of the community.

Richard Peck turns Mary Alice's difficult situation into an amusing story with laugh-out-loud humor. Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel's sense of humor is expressed through their witty perception of the other characters. The reader is left in suspense wondering what kind of chaos this grandmother and granddaughter will create next. I highly recommend this Newbery Medal winning book to examine a different kind of relationship between grandparents and grandchildren.

Rating:
Summary: Great Children Lit. A year Down Yonder
Review: A Year Down Yonder
By Richard Peck (2001 Newberry Award Winner.)

During the 1937 Roosevelt recession 15 year old Mary Alice is sent to the country to live with her odd grandma Mrs. Dowdel. Her family hadn't much money her older brother Joey was working out west. Having lived in Chicago it took time to adjust to the hick town and the very small high school where they didn't even have sophomores. After stepping of the train with about everything she owned including her cat Bootsie and her radio she expected to go to the house instead grandma made her walk to school. Immediately she was an outcast viewed as the rich girl from Chicago that wouldn't work. It helped that they knew her grandma as a strange trigger-happy woman who kept to herself. (She also had a way of shaking up the local populace with drama and surprises.) As the year when on she began to love the country as well as understand her grandmother better. Things were viewed different in the country stealing was considered "barrowing" and Mrs. Dowdel kept to these ways. Her grandmother was healthy for a woman her age and baked delicious pies and pastries, which Mary Alice enjoyed. She learned the meaning of hard work, how to keep a secret often helping her grandma in the middle of the night. By the end of the year young Mary Alice had learned some of life's harder lessons. Though Mrs. Dowdel looked big and rough she had a kind loving heart which her grandaughter discovered as she often looked in on a poor friend Mrs. Abernathy. Mary Alice also realized that nothing would be too strange to happen to this town and some interesting characters wondered in during her yearlong visit an artist painting portraits, a Burdick baby, and Royce McNab a handsome senior and new kid as well. Mary Alice knew better to predict anything when it came to grandma Dowdel she even managed to play matchmaker in getting a couple married. During the book Mary Alice turns 16 and grows up she doesn't want to leave her aging grandmother though she knows that Mrs. Dowdel is perfectly capable of living by herself but most of all she doesn't want to admit she had fallen in love with the country. It was hard for her to leave but grandma told her "You take the kitten. (Bootsie also adjusted and had kittens.) I'll keep the cat. I'll keep the cat. You go on home to your folks. It'll be alright. I don't lock my doors."

Is there to be another sequeal? I have friends who want one and grandma Dowdel left the door open! It is a quick read for kids wanting a light good humored book this hits the spot. It can easily be read in an hour great for the lazy days of summer. Enjoy and have fun.

Rating:
Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: I liked the second book in this series even more than the first becuase it was funnier, catchier and the ending was very happy and nice! In both of the books, it is written from Grandma Dowdel's point of view. She is the funniest, wackiest, coolest Granny in the world...if she really exsisted. I hope that one day not too long from now, a third book will come out and if not, the definetely a movie. Out of all the books I have ever read, these two just about top them all. If I were to suggest any book ever, it would ahve to be one of these. Sometime in the near future, if I have the time, I would love to read these two great books again!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: In this book Mary Alice goes to live with her grandmother, who is different from any other grandmother I know. It turns out to be a whole year full of surprises, you can never guess what Mary Alice's grandmother will do next. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder chronicles the zany adventures of Grandma Dowdel and her granddaughter Mary Alice. Raised in Chicago, Mary Alice is in for quite a shock when she finds herself sent to live with her grandmother in a country town in 1937. Although Mary Alice has a hard time adjusting (she has to learn to keep her beloved cat Bootsie outside and play her Philco portable radio at night in bed), she grows accustomed to the wacky way of living in which her grandmother has grown to love. Whether Mary Alice is helping her grandmother steal pecans to make a pie or making tarts for the Auxiliary Ladies, she never forgets her family and how much they mean to her. As the story draws to a close, Mary Alice finds herself closer to her grandmother than she ever thought would happen when she moved from Chicago.
This book does everything it can to keep the reader interested. From Grandma Dowdel's outrageous acts to Mary Alice's adventures in school, this book is never boring. In fact, it's hard to put down! The characters are extremely well developed and the detailed descriptions of the crazy stunts Grandma Dowdel and Mary Alice take part in are wonderful. In some way, every reader would be able to relate to the characters-whether it being the new kid on the block like Mary Alice or having a silly relative like Grandma Dowdel. If you are ever looking for a book that has wonderful humor, a lot of adventure or a sense or realism, A Year Down Yonder is a top pick!

Rating:
Summary: A Year Down Yonder
Review: The year is 1937 and the depression has hit many familys including the family of Mary Alice. Her father has lost his job, his brother is forced to move out west to plant trees for the civilian corps and her parents are forced to move into a dumpy one bedroom apartment. Mary Alice walks off the train form chicago with two thoughts in her mind and two items in her hand.....
The best things about this book are how it explains the life after the depression in a small country town, how her grandmother is so weird, also all the grandmothers schemes and how the writting was easy to understand. No really long paragraphs and no boring parts. This book was very dramatic, and great!
I reccomend this book to ages 9- 13 it was really enjoyable.
I hope you love the book!

M.S. Rox