Rating: 
Summary: Took Me Home
Review: I have to admit a certain attachment to this book. As a boy who grew up on one of those stops down the train line from Chicago, I felt a real connection to the story told in this book. Of course, unlike Joey, I didn't just spend the summers in the small Illinois town downstate. I lived my life there and didn't take the train upto Chicago until I was 17 and headed for college. Still, Peck has certainly caught the flavor of small town Illinois.The bulk of this book takes place over the summers from 1929 to 1935. And yet, it's amazing how much of those attitudes depicted in this novel still survive. My grandmother grew up during the Depression and much of the quirkiness and toughness balanced by family feeling shown in the character of Grandma Dowdel I remember in my own grandmother. That's what makes Grandma Dowdel such a wonderful and realistic character. And yet, there is also a glimpse of history here. Many things from the 1930's--some good and some bad--are gone now and it's fun to travel back in time through the pages of this book. I don't know if kids today are effected much by stories of the past. The flashiness of twenty-first century culture is stiff competition to a story no matter how well-told but I certainly enjoyed this book. The best "childrens' books" can be read and enjoyed by adults but I hope there are some younger readers out there who give this book a try. It will take you to a place that is sadly disappearing from the American landscape.
Rating: 
Summary: A Long Way From Chicago
Review: This book is about two kids that live in Chicago. They go to visit their grand mother that lives in a little town in Illinois for one week once a year. Some wild thing happens every time and they always seem to be put in the middle of it. What I learned from this book is that everyone thinks that grandma Dowel is a mean and evil woman. Grandma Dowel is just trying to help people in her own way. I loved the book because the author made you feel like you're in the book. I could actually imagine Shotgun Cheatham rising up out of his casket. It was funny imagining the plane trying to rise off of the ground with grandma in it. Grandma is an old fashion type of person. If she wants something she will get it. Mary Alice and Joey are brother and sister. They are very different people. Mary Alice not afraid of many things, but on the other hand Joey is afraid of everything. This book is shortened from 10 years to 148 pages. If you really enjoy reading books.
Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFUL STORY
Review: This is a story about two kids that have to go to thier grandma's droopy town every summer for one weekend. Once they get there they find out that thier grandma isn't such a boring woman and the town is NOT so sleepy. I liked this book because every chapter was a different year that they wet to thier granndmas house and a new advennture.
Rating:
Summary: Laughed Out Loud
Review: I got this book to help a 13 year old read aloud. She is struggling with her reading and rarely reads voluntarily so there's heavy expectations here. I loved the book with its small town poignancy and the characterization of Grandma. I lived in Chicago for 7 years and did not get "down state" as often as I would have liked. The expressions and antics of Grandma were very evocative of small town Midwest USA. The story takes place South of Urbana Champaign IL, although the exact town where Grandma lives is never mentioned, three or four surrounding towns and other landmarks like Salt Creek pinpoint the locale in the Argenta, Farmer City, Bement, Tuscola area of Illinois. Mention is made "of walking outside the county across Route 36". This is rural middle America at its quirky best. Although this is a childrens' book, children may not appreciate the poignancy of the ending as Joey and Grandma wave goodbye at the end probably for the last time as he goes off to World War II. Now the experiment! Will the 13 year old get away from MTV land long enough to sit down and read aloud?
Rating:
Summary: A Long Way From Chicago
Review: When I first saw the cover of A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck, I thought that this was going to be an easy book to read. Somebody recommended this book to me and this book was not only easy to read, it was terrific. It takes place during the 1930s. Every summer two grandchildren, Joey and Mary-Alice visit their grandma. Joey thinks he is getting more and more mature, at least that's what he thinks, because in one summer when he turned 13, he said to his grandma, "Please call me Joe, grandma. I am not a kid anymore." Mary-Alice is more of a quiet girl and likes to read books and likes to jump rope. Grandma is a very unique type of grandma. She rides in biplanes, wrestles snakes, shoots guns, tells whites lies, sometimes, and so much more. It seems like grandma is very active and she can't seem to slow down. Richard Peck did a great job on this book and it is great literature to read. This is just a funny book and you will get a few laughs out of this book while you are reading it. It gets sad at the end, but overall I give this book 4 out of 5 stars becuase it is the type of reading that I like to read.
Rating: 
Summary: How I felt about A Long Way From Chicago
Review: A Long way from Chicago is about a boy named Joey and his sister Mary Alice. Every summer they always go to their grandma's house, down in the country, and they spend a week there. While they are there, they have some very "unique" things happen to them, such as their grandma putting a mouse in some milk and her uncle jumping off of a float to go beat someone up. The author's (Richard Peck) style of writing was funny, but at the end it got serious and sad. The main character Joey is a serious kid. He is always maturing! I couldn't relate to Joey, but I could relate to how he felt when he was leaving his grandma's house for the last time. I liked A Long Way from Chicago and I would give it a 3/5. I gave it a 3/5 because it took a while to get me hooked on the book, but overall it was a good book.
Rating:
Summary: A One Woman Crime Wave
Review: It seems that GrandMa Dowdel lives in her own little world. She apparently disdains contact with her neighbors and thinks them all to be 'horse's patooties'. Once you get to know her better, you learn that her worst enemy may in fact be her best friend. The way she cons and browbeats the town banker into coughing back up the house recently foreclosed upon, free and clear, well it must be read to be enjoyed fully. Each chapter, a week the kids are 'dumped on Gandma so Mom & Dad can go fishing', reveals another action packed adventure in the constantly turning mischief mill that is Grandma Dowdel's mind. I was given this book by my ten year old son after he finished it in record time, and I knocked it off in just one day. I cried at the end, as the boy, now a man heading off to war is on the troop train. He telegrammed his Depression-era Grandmother he would merely pass through without stopping, and after many delays, is treated to a heart warming experience I'll let author Richard Peck handle in his inimitable style.
Rating:
Summary: Independent Reading Review
Review: Dear Amazon, The book, A Long Way from Chicago, by Richard Peck, is a fantastic novel for people that just want to have fun reading.The three main characters, Grandma Dowdel, Mary-Alice, and Joey each have their own virtues that stick out in my mind. Grandma's stretching of the truth makes her two grandchildren doubt how safe they really are with her. When a local gets killed many townspeople tell of old time stories of how "Shotgun Cheatham" god his name. Grandma Dowdel wants to settle the mystery of this man and let him rest in peace so she dicides to hold a wake at her house. During this time some wild things occur which could drive any reader to keep turning this books pages. The target audience for this book is more for young teens and kids to read, becuase the way the characters act in certain positions they are put in. I would recommend this novel, I definitely enjoyed it!
Rating:
Summary: A Long Way from Chicago
Review: This book is filled with many adventures involving a grandma and her grandchildren. Her grandson and granddaughter come to live with her because times were hard during the Great Depression. I would recommend this book for kids who are in the 6th grade or up due to not being about to understand the books because of the big words. This book reflects conflict because of problems experienced during the Great Depression.
Rating:
Summary: girl in the country
Review: This book is about a girl who moves from the city to her grandmas house in the country. When she gets there they have all kinds of problems going on like when shotgun cheetah came to life and when the boys broke in to their house. I liked this book becaus her life was full of excitment.The setting took place in the country an the climate was warm.
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