Module 4 A Year Down Yonder

Bibliographic Citation

Peck, R. (2000). A year down yonder. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.

Summary

It was 1937 during the recession and Mary Alice's parents have sent her to live with Grandma in a hick-town outside of Chicago.   As soon as she is off the train Grandma Dowdel enrolls her in school and takes care of a bully right after school.  Grandma Dowdel shows her sense of humor at Halloween with playing pranks on the local boys at the outhouse.  Many people are afraid of Grandma Dowdel because she is a large and loud woman.  But she also has a gentle and caring nature because she helped raise more money than ever with the Ladies of the Legion Auxiliary.  She taught Mary Alice how to cook and trap foxes.  Together they survived a tornado.  Mary Alice became firends with the new boy, Royce.  She eventualy came back to Grandma Dowdel's house to marry him when she was older.

Impressions

I came to admire the character Grandma Dowdel as I read the book.  She had a strong personality that came out rough.  But underneath she was caring and loving.  Mary Alice came to admire her grandma as well by observing how she helped others.


Suggestions For Use in a Library

1.  If reading a chapter at a time, discuss if you think Grandma did the right thing in each chapter.
2.  What would it be like to leave your home for a year away from your parents?  Use this as an introduction to interest children in this book.

Reviews

The year is 1937, and Mary Alice, age 15, is scheduled to spend an entire year in southern Illinois with Grandma Dowdel, due to her parents falling on hard times during the Great Depression. In this satisfying sequel to Pecks Newbery Honor, A Long Way from Chicago (Penguin Putnam, 1998), Grandma Dowdel is her usual crusty, hell-raising self. Mary Alice dreads the idea of leaving big-time Chicago, going to Grandma's "hick town" and enrolling in its small-town high school. As the year progresses, though, she realizes that underneath Grandma's rough exterior there is a caring, nurturing person whom Mary Alice learns to look to as her role model. Grandma is up to her usual mischief, which adds a lot of humor to the story line. Such incidents as finally catching the boys who damage the outhouses on Halloween and putting the DAR ladies in their places serve to portray Grandma as a truly memorable character who will keep readers hooked until the very end. We empathize with Mary Alice as she metamorphoses, and the depth of her character increases perceptively during her 15th year under Grandma Dowdel's guidance. Fans of Peck and of the first book will flock to this latest title, and their enthusiasm will be contagious.

A year down yonder. (2001). Book Report, 20(1), 61.

In this hilarious and poignant sequel to A Long Way to Chicago, Peck once again shows that country life is anything but boring. Chicago-bred Mary Alice (who has previously weathered annual week-long visits with Grandma Dowdel) has been sentenced to a year-long stay in rural Illinois with her irrepressible, rough and gruff grandmother, while Joey heads west with the Civilian Conservation Corps, and her parents struggle to get back on their feet during the 1937 recession. Each season brings new adventures to 15-year-old Mary Alice as she becomes Grandma's partner in crime, helping to carry out madcap schemes to benefit friends and avenge enemies. Around Halloween, for example, the woman, armed with wire, a railroad spike and a bucket of glue, outsmarts a gang of pranksters bent on upturning her privy. Later on, she proves just as apt at squeezing change out of the pockets of skinflints, putting prim and proper DAR ladies in their place and arranging an unlikely match between a schoolmarm and a WPA artist of nude models. Between antic capers, Peck reveals a marshmallow heart inside Grandma's rock-hard exterior and adroitly exposes the mutual, unspoken affection she shares with her granddaughter. Like Mary Alice, audience members will breathe a sigh of regret when the eventful year "down yonder" draws to a close. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)

A year down yonder. (2000). Publishers Weekly, 247(39), 118.

Gr 5-8 --Peck charms readers once again with this entertaining sequel to A Long Way from Chicago (Dial, 1998). This time, 15-year-old Mary Alice visits Grandma Dowdel alone for a one-year stay, while her parents struggle through the recession of 1937 looking for jobs and better housing. With her older brother, Joey, working out west in a government program, Mary Alice takes a turn at recounting memorable and pivotal moments of her year with Grandma. Beneath the woman's fierce independence and nonconformity, Mary Alice discovers compassion, humor, and intuition. She watches her grandmother exact the perfect revenge on a classmate who bullies her on the first day of school, and she witnesses her "shameless" tactics to solicit donations from Veteran's Day "burgoo' eaters whose contributions are given to Mrs. Abernathy's blind, paralyzed, war-veteran son. From her energetic, eccentric, but devoted Grandma, she learns not only how to cook but also how to deal honesty and fairly with people. At story's end, Mary Alice returns several years later to wed the soldier, Royce McNabb, who was her classmate during the year spent with Grandma. Again, Peck has created a delightful, insightful tale that resounds with a storyteller's wit, humor, and vivid description. Mary Alice's memories capture the atmosphere, attitudes, and lifestyle of the times while shedding light on human strengths and weaknesses.

Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Auerbach, B., Grabarek, D., Leiboff, J., & Larson, G. (2000). A year down yonder. School Library Journal, 46(9), 236.