Just Loved Reading:
A Year Down Yonder
Middle Grade Fiction
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder. New York: Puffin Books, 2000.
A Year Down Yonder is the sequel to A Long Way from Chicago and just as touching and funny.
Siblings Joey and Mary Alice have spent several summers staying with Grandma Dowdel in her rural Illinois town. In 1937, however, they go their separate ways. Joey has joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and is heading west with them. Lucky Mary Alice gets to spend a whole year with her tough crusty grandmother while their parents try to reverse the economic hardship brought on by the Recession of 1937.
A bored Mary Alice joins Grandma Dowdel in a series of madcap adventures and misadventures. As the year winds down, fifteen-year old Mary Alice discovers that her rough and tough grandmother harbors a deep affection for her granddaughter which is grudgingly reciprocated.
WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:
Peck’s characters carry the plot along and the plot is often one series of – sometimes improbable - events after the other. His humor enhances the narrative and adds a dimension to the characters and their behavior.
RURAL ILLINOIS 1930’s
http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/illinois/small-town-1930-il/
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/teaching_packages/hard_times/home.html
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