A Year Down Yonder (A Long Way from Chicago, #2) (2024)

I can often tell how old a person's grandmother was when she died, by the grandchild's descriptions of her. If “Grandma” is perpetually frozen in time as a “dear” woman who baked batches of cookies by the dozen, I can usually surmise that the grandchild lost her at a relatively young age.

Other evidence: how “Grandma” smelled. If the grandmother died while the grandchild was still young, this is typically something favorable: Ivory soap, rose oil, shortbread cookies, a particular perfume.

If, on the other hand, your “Grandma” lived until you were almost 40 years old, and you spent 12 consecutive summers living with her, you might have a whole different impression of her.

When you come to know your grandmother as a full-bodied adult, you may still love her like crab cakes, but you might, just might, know a few things about her that could make you want to throw her old relish dish across the room, too.

My experience of my paternal grandmother is so loaded, I still struggle to make peace with her, some 10 years now, after her passing. Probably the most challenging (and cathartic) review I ever wrote for a book was for Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel. Many of my confused feelings about my grandparent were mirrored in that story.

And here, in Richard Peck's 2001 Newbery Medal winner, A Year Down Yonder, I unexpectedly stumbled upon another leading lady, Mary Alice Dowdel, who can't quite negotiate what it feels like to live with a difficult and outspoken grandmother.

Wow. This was not only a brilliantly written book, it twisted me up in a few tight knots, too.

Grandma Dowdel is a piece of work, but she's a survivor, too. I was pleasantly surprised to find this spirited exploration of a complicated, intergenerational relationship between two women in this middle grades read. Luckily, my girls enjoyed it as much as I did.

With a small turn of hand, Grandma waved Mrs. Sheets away. Mrs. Sheets remained at her post. “Mrs. Dowdel,” she went on, “you're not everybody's cup of tea. Well, it's common knowledge, isn't it? But we girls would be proud as Punch to have you join our Auxiliary if you're a veteran's wife. Did your late husband go to war?”
“Only with me,” Grandma said. “and he lost every time.”

With her father out of work during the Great Depression, Mary Alice, the female half of the Windy City siblings that we met in A Long Way from Chicago, returns to stay not just for a week in the summer, but for a WHOLE YEAR at Grandma Dowdel's place. Though her Grandma is still as feisty as ever, Mary Alice has grown a bit, and she's not looking forward to spending so much time in that tiny town. The year passes quickly, though, and thanks to Grandma Dowdel, rather eventfully, what with all the school activities, and Grandma's attempts to keep her privy from being vandalized. Though perhaps not quite as funny as the first book, this one ends up being much more touching and heartfelt. I was listening to the audio in the car, and had to pull over to the side of the road after being moved to tears by the end of the Veteran's Day chapter.

This is just another wonderful book by Peck. I'm really looking forward to one more encounter with Grandma Dowdel in A Season of Gifts. She's unforgettable!

It’s 1937, and many Americans are learning that the Great Depression, which began eight years previously, is not over. In fact, more people are losing their jobs and being evicted and having to scrounge for food. This is the case for Mary Alice’s family. So, while her brother (featured in the “Newberry Honor-winning A Long Way from Chicago”) goes to the Civilian Conservation Corps, Mary Alice is bound “downstate” to spend a year with Grandma Dowdel.

Mary Alice (a young teen) takes her cat and radio with on the Wabash “Blue Bird,” which leaves Chicago bound for St. Louis. (For an Illinois resident, “downstate” refers to anything but the Chicago metro area.) Mary Alice isn’t going to St. Louis, just some flag-stop little town about halfway along the route. We will get to know it very well through Mary Alice’s eyes.

Peck shows a deft hand at striking a folksy note but not going overboard to “cutesy.” People may be slightly exaggerated, but their lives and occupations ring true.

“That’s Aunt Mae Griswold. The Cowgills brought her to town in their dairy wagon. She don’t get out much anymore.”
“Grandma, how old IS she?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Grandma said. “You’d have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.”

“When Sunday afternoon finally came, the whole town was sleeping off big dinners as I paced the front room. Grandma was offstage but audible. I could hear her two rooms away. One of her snores had a whistle in it like Aunt Mae’s. Her other one was low and throaty, like pigs eating clinkers.”

Grandma is a force of nature and a woman that most in town steer clear of. Mary Alice is looked upon as the “rich kid from Chicago” despite her few threadbare outfits. We get a full twelve months of Mary Alice and Grandma trying to get along, get by, and get to the next event in a very full and satisfying year.

I believe that, while this book is intended for teens and young adults, it can be appreciated by a wider audience. I certainly enjoyed the descriptions of rural life and the humorous characterizations. 4.5* Thanks again, to my GR friend, Julie, for spotlighting this for me.

You couldn't call her a welcoming woman, and there wasn't a hug in her. She didn't put out her arms, so I had nothing to run into. (PG. 5)

John Newbery Medal--YA-- 2000

So happy he won a Newbery Medal before he passed away. (1934-2018) He definitely deserves this praise. The sequel to "A Long Way From Chicago" is just as good as the first one. It's the Recession after the Depression and Mary Alice's parents have little money so they send her away to live with grandma for the year. Let me tell you, she is like no grandmother you have ever met and you will love and cringe her. It is such an amusing novel.

I highly recommend and will probably end up owning this series. This is a great author.

My 5th and 6th graders are currently reading this book. It's quite delightful. I started the audio book on the way home from work and couldn't turn it off.

I adore big-boned Grandma Dowdel, with her crafty schemes, her happy trigger finger, and her "eyes in the back of her heart." Some of her ornery sayings and unexpected pranks had me laughing out loud. And best of all, her bold, pushy, cantankerous exterior hides her tender, compassionate, unselfish interior. Watching Mary Alice grow to care for and understand her grandmother through the course of the story was touching. Much to her own surprise, she even begins to emulate Grandma in some ways.

Side note:

After reading the first three chapters, all my students (boys and girls) came to school today raving about Grandma D. If you ever plan to do an in-depth character analysis with middle grade students, I suggest this book. They raced through pages and shouted over each other to provide specific examples of her character traits. And they're already asking if we can read the rest of the series. Not a bad endorsem*nt, if you ask me.

Gorgeous kid's book for all ages. Grandma is really hilarious.
A laugh and a (happy) tear. A fun read. Makes you feel good.
I read A long way from Chicago, the first book, years ago and been meaning to read this one for a long time. And my, is it worthed.
Recommended!

Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois own had been packed with enough surprises and drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she's fifteen, and with her parents facing hard times in Chicago, she is sent to Grandma again, but this time she faces a whole long year with Grandma, a woman well-known for shaking up her neighbors - and every one else! All Mary Alice can know for certain is this: when trying to predict how life with Grandma might turn out.... better not.

Then their leader advanced upon Grandma. By the name on her cap, she was Mrs. W.T. Sheets. her medals jangled importantly. Grandma observed her approach. "Mrs. Dowdel,"said Mrs. Sheets. "I'm here to tell you that you're twice as bald-faced and brazen and, yes, I have to say shameless as the rest of us girls put together. In the presence of these witnesses, I'm on record for saying you outdo the most two-faced, two-fisted shortchanger, flimflam artist, and full-time extortionist anybody ever saw working this part of the country. And all I have to say is, God bless you for your good work. " With a small turn of hand, Grandma waved Mrs. Sheets away. Mrs. Sheets remained at her post. "Mrs. Dowdel", she went on, "you're not everybody's cup of tea. Well, it's common knowledge, isn't it? But we girls would be proud as Punch to have you join our Auxiliary if you're a veteran's wife. Did your late husband go to war?" "Only with me,"Grandma said, "and he lost every time."

Mary Alice’s father had lost his job so her parents moved to a small room only suitable for two, sending her brother Joey in one direction and Mary Alice in the other; she was to stay with Grandma Dowdel for a year. Mary Alice was fifteen and couldn’t imagine not seeing her friends, having a telephone or the internet or even television – starting a new school made her nervous! With her previous visits to her Grandma’s having been spent with Joey and only for a week, she had no idea how she would get on for a whole year!

Grandma had all the folk from her small town frightened of her – and Mary Alice slowly began to see Grandma’s ways. Never one to show her feelings, it got so Mary Alice could read her – and her Grandma certainly knew what Mary Alice was thinking; even before she was thinking it!

I absolutely loved A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck! An absolutely delightful, laugh out loud rendition of life, love and laughter among the hard times of the depression – Grandma was a fabulous character. With a dry wit, stoic personality and strength of purpose that only the women of small towns who knew hardship seemed to have, she brings this book to life. This is my first book by this author, but I’ll definitely be looking for more. Highly recommended to all.

Highly enjoyable down-homey tales of yesteryear! If you can't get enough of stuff like Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story, this little series is just your patch o' sweet potatoes!

Grandma Dowdel is a fiesty old broad (think Vicki Lawrence's "Mama" character), who possesses a Jeeves-esque way of fixing others' problems. In this, book two, Grandma gets a visit from her teenaged granddaughter, from whose pov we see the story unfold. It's a year in the life of a teen girl going to school and living away from family during the Depression era in the rural Midwest.

Richard Reck's characters are larger than life and fun as all get-out. He does an admirable job with period details, making it easy for the reader to get lost in the time and place of these delightful scenes.

A Year Down Yonder is good fun, but probably a little less over-the-top silly than the first book. For me, it set a better tone this way.

This was a laugh out loud short that I could have listened to for hours more. The small town, rural, characters are the very best!! All are so creative and quite different that I could not wait to see what they would do next. Grandma is someone I would love to know. This is a series I won't miss.

It was 1937 and the country was in the midst of what people were calling the Roosevelt recession. The Dowdel family, like so many others, had hit upon hard times and Mary Alice was to be sent to live with her grandmother until the family got back on their feet. She and her brother, Joey, had spent many summers with Grandma Dowdel in her sleepy Illinois town, but Mary Alice was fifteen now and this visit was going to be a full twelve months! With no telephone, an outdoor privy, a spooky attic, and everything being as old as Grandma...if not older...how was a city girl from Chicago going to survive in this hick town for one whole year?

"A Year Down Yonder" received the Newbery Medal in 2001 and was the sequel to Peck’s "A Long Way from Chicago", recipient of a Newbery Honor in 1999. In this wildly amusing and heartfelt book, Peck delivers one of the most outrageous, audacious, outlandish, and unforgettable characters when he gave us Grandma Dowdel. She’s trigger-happy (and the whole town knows it) and not afraid to speak her mind. But behind that gruff and crusty exterior lies a woman who’s generous to a fault and genuinely cares about her neighbors...although she would be the first to deny it. Peck gives us small-town life and everything that comes with it. From turkey shoots and Halloween hijinks to Burdicks (you’ll know one when you see ‘em) and burgoo, Grandma Dowdel handles everything with humor and candor and might even treat you to a glass of buttermilk and a square of corn bread in the process.

"A Year Down Yonder" takes readers to rural America and back to a time where folks learned how to make the most with what little they had and considered themselves blessed if they had their health, their family, and one or two people that could be counted on when it mattered most. It’s a delightful and amusing book that extolls the virtues of kindness and the importance of family. It also reminds us not to judge a book by its cover for it is often the tartest apples that make the best pies. Just ask Grandma Dowdel.

This was a laugh out loud book; in fact I don't remember laughing so much reading a book before! It may be a children's book, but I think an adult of a certain age would understand the humor more. Maybe because I was born and raised in Illinois or maybe just being that adult of a certain age, I delighted in this story. Grandma Dowdel is a character not to be missed!

3.5 stars. I did not really care much for Mary Alice, who is sent to spend the year with her kooky grandmother because her parents cannot afford to feed her in the late 1930's. On the other hand, I really liked the grandmother, who is a hoot and a prankster, wreaking mischief both on deserving teenagers and adults. My favorite quote from the grandmother about how much easier life was then: "When I was a girl, we had to walk in our sleep to keep from freezing to death." This is a feel good story though, written for middle age readers. Fun and funny.

I did not want this book to end! It's one of those stories that you read it to just enjoy it, not just to see how it ends. This is a story about a young girl from Chicago who is sent to live with her Grandmother. Her grandmother's life style is very far removed from what Mary Alice has ever know because her grandmother is pure country. She is so country that even the townspeople are afraid of Grandma Dowdel. In Mary Alice's year stay with grandma she has many life experiences that will follow her through to adulthood. Life with grandma is never boring. From trapping fox in the middle of the night to taking in artistic drifters who paint nudes in the attic, Mary Alice is going to find it hard to leave grandma after a year!

Richard Peck does a wonderful job with creating a woman that you can not help but love. You are always waiting for the next surprise from Grandma Dowdel. As you read, you can picture all the people who make up the unique town because of the detailed descriptions from the author. Even if you did not grow up in the country or small town, there are many events and people that most people can relate to.

I can't wait to read A Long Way From Chicago!

2021 Review
Growing up, my parents read this book aloud to us and marveled at how much my Grandma resembled Grandma Dowdel. They roared with laughter over it. With the eyes of a child, I did not see it. But now that I am an adult...

HOLY COW. The resemblance is uncanny. I'm related to Grandma Dowdel.

2009 Review
Entertaining with great wit and a terrific sense of humor

I think this is a first. Never before have I read a sequel before reading the original novel. (At least as far as I can recall.) (The Discworld books don't count. They aren't organized in a proper order, are they? You can't call a book a sequel unless it's called a sequel on the cover.) (Well, I suppose I can make an exception if it has a number on the spine.) I usually hold out for the original, but in this case my daughter's curriculum assigned her to read this volume and, unlike my daughter, I wasn't able to check the original out in time. (Smart kid. Must take after her mum.) Anyway, A Year Down Yonder is the tale of Mary Alice, a teenaged Chicago girl suffering from the recession of 1937. Her father has lost her job and the only way the family can make ends meet is if Mary Alice goes down to live with her Grandma in downstate Illinois. With a premise like that, one would envision a warm tale of discovery as the city girl discovers the wonder and beauty of rural life in the loving care of her kind and wise grandmother. Yes, that's quite a vision. In this tale, however, Grandma's a cantankerous old bird with a shotgun behind the woodbox and a reputation for causing trouble. It makes for an enjoyable book. Mr. Peck doesn't quite offer us a laugh riot, but there are plenty of chuckles, a few surprises and occasionally something that feels like a tug on the heartstrings. I probably should try to check out this book's predecessor.

I had a hard time deciding, but I have concluded that I liked this one more than the first in the series (A Long Way from Chicago). It is too perfect how Mary Alice is slowly turning into her aunt, and having a slightly older MC made it more enjoyable for slightly older audiences. Once again, the stories of childhood with the strangest Grandma are wonderful, and I loved how we got a bit more insight into Grandma Dowell's thoughts in this book. From a new boy in class to a squater snake, Peck did not let us down with this sequal! And, to top it off, the ending was everything I could have hoped for.

I would also like to note, I know of very few series that have Newberry medals for the first and second books. That shows true talent, to carry the writing along with the story so well for a second book!

During the depression, a fifteen year old girl goes from Chicago to the countryside to stay with her grandmother for a year. The grandmother is the kind of person that other people would call a "character". The book relates some of her strategems and antics, and they tend to range from amusing to very funny.

My trouble with the book is that it has no story, and no drive. Rather, each chapter centers on some Holiday during the year. And with each Holiday, we get another droll incident about something mildly shocking done by the grandma. At first, I thought it was charming. I liked the chapter about getting the materials for making the pecan pie.

And then, pretty quickly, I thought it was getting old. There is very little that holds the book together. There are almost no recurring characters that wind through the book. Instead, people get introduced when they will become good foils for grandma's various strategies. By the end, I was just reading to get through it, and not enjoying it much at all, and that almost never happens to me in a book that's as short as this.

I seriously wonder about this being a Newberry Medal winner. I can't imagine any kid recommending this book to a friend (maybe I'm wrong about this). I also have a hard time figuring out why this book has been assigned at schools. It seems to me that if you give this sort of book to kids, you will ultimately be teaching them that they shouldn't want to read.

The cover shown above has none of the character of the Scholastic Press edition.... I stayed in bed to read this book this morning. You'd do well to do the same, or to sit down in front of a fire with a cup of tea and a couple of cookies...

A Year Down Yonder is a sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. Same cast of characters, different layout.
Mary Alice, Joey's younger sister, is the narrator. She is about 15. The recession following the Depression and preceding the war means that MA's parents have lost their house. Joey is off with the CCC planting trees, and Mary Alice is sent to spend a year with her grandmother. Imagine being uprooted at 14, torn from your friends, to spend a year with your slightly nutty, headstrong, sure-of-herself grandmother.

The story is gentle and not a bit unbelievable. A little outrageous, perhaps, but that's Grandma Dowdel.

What makes this story, as well as the previous one, is the way Richard Peck captures the vocabulary of the area and of the era. He uses them, does not condescend to define or explain. You KNOW what Mary Alice means when she describes the scene after the wealthiest person in town patching a tire shot by the school principal's unruly son "The air was blue"

I opened randomly to page 29. Here are the idioms and nouns that I find that create the atmosphere that envelops the reader: gunnysack, wide berth, "old as dirt and deaf as an adder", "He goes to bed with the chickens". The girls in the school (all 17 children in the "high school") study "Home Ec" and somehow crochet used soda bottle caps into hot-pads (for taking hot casseroles out of the oven.

Richard Peck's ability to make his teen girl narrator real, to evoke cash-strapped Grandma Dowdel's strength of character and attention to the personal dignity of the least of her neighbors make you wish she were YOUR Grandma, and that there were more stories of her and her grandchildren. Perhaps there are-- nuts, the library was closed today. (I'd go on and on except it's Christmas Eve and I have things to do.)

It's funny because when I think about the Grandma Dowdel books, I tend to remember not being as impressed by Grandma as the rest of the world seems to be (the children's literature world, anyway.) But when I actually read the books, I am won over completely. I'm not sure why my memory works that way.

What I particularly liked about this book was that it was a lesson in show-don't-tell emotions. Grandma Dowdel is a gruff, rough, occasionally mean old woman. But she also has a caring heart, though she refuses to admit it and will likely hurt you if you accuse her of any such thing. As such, she never tells Mary Alice that she cares for her, but she shows it through many little actions: making the Christmas halo, buying train tickets so that Mary Alice can spend the holiday with her family, and, in the end, forcing Mary Alice to go home, and thereby taking the overwhelming decision out of her hands. Grandma Dowdel is said to have "eyes in the back of her heart", and that is an apt way of putting it. (Oddly enough, the very next book I read after this one, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, used the exact same expression.)

The humor in this book is not as over-the-top as in the Long Way from Chicago, but it's definitely there. It makes sense that there is slightly less craziness in this book, because Mary Alice is getting to know Grandma Dowdel in much more depth than she did as a child only visiting for a few weeks at a time. She sees the revengeful mean streak, of course, but she also sees that Grandma makes sure the Abernathys are provided for, and rescues mean Old Man Nyquist when few other people would even think to check on him.

Listened to this with my true love. I wasn't the only one sniffling at the ending.

I love this book with all my heart. Grandma Dowdel reminds me a lot of my own grandmother, and listening to this brings her back a little. I love the cats in the cob house, and what happens when the tornado comes to town. I love how Joey is and isn't here for the whole book, just like real life.

It's absolutely splendid, and a lovely narrator doesn't hurt a bit. Highly recommended.

Everything seems to be going well until the great depression hits Mary Alice's family. Her dad lost his job and her family moved into an old apartment for 7 dollars a week. To save money, Mary Alice is sent to her grandma Dowels quiet Illinois town, with a tiny little school house. At first Mary Alice longs to go back to Chicago, but after she meets new friends and goes on new adventure with her over weight, peppy grandma, all she wants to do is stay.

I picked this book up on a whim at my library and devoured it in only a few evenings. I just fell in love with the quirky characters and the hilarious anecdotes that make up this novel.

I loved Grandma so much. She is a fantastic character--seemingly isolated and uninterested in other people, but really invested and wants to help others.

I loved Mary Alice's narrations of the different stories from her year with Grandma. I thought the point of view was very well done and easy to follow. Peck captures the teenage view of the Great Depression with spunk and hope despite the difficulties of the time.

I loved the small town feel and the way these characters became family.

The ending is lovely as well.

I felt like I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird again. The tone and overall message of the book felt similar. I recommend this one and plan on reading the prequel!

"Hoo-boy!" Yeah. I really got into this. I laughed and laughed. Grandma Dowdel is my hero. I don't even know what to say! Sometimes I wonder what the feminists are going on about. Look at Grandma Dowdel, sure she's a fictional character, but I've met facets of her in many real life women. Strong, full of character, tough (as in enduring), deep-rooted in love and generosity, skilled in essential living-on-nothing, canny as a snake, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - enormously beautiful as a human being. I've just added Grandma Dowdel to my fictional mentors list. Gosh. Adults should read more kid's books.

This was a very endearing and amusing book. The writer is going into her senior year of high school during the Depression and her parents, out of jobs, can't afford to support her in Chicago...so they send her to stay with her rather kooky grandmother and go to the little schoolhouse in the tiny town.

I may like this book even more than the first one because it’s from Mary Alice’s point of you - it also has my favorite story about Grandma Dowdel (the one with the painter, his model and the very large snake). Even though I’ve read this one multiple times as well, I always tear up at the end.

Oh Lort, I loved this!
So very good! Listened to on audio.
So sweet, had my ❤️.
What a grandma (what a writer)! My grandma goals!

I've not read any other books by this author, but I'm sure that will change now. Set during the Depression, this is definitely not a depressing book, but is full of humor. When her parents lose their home our 15 year-old heroine is sent from Chicago to live with her backwoods Grandma in lower Illinois, for an entire school year. Feeling awkward and rather in awe of her outspoken, gun-toting Grandmother, she doesn't want to go and has some trouble settling in. But eventually she finds her place, while experiencing some hilarious adventures. This is an episodic book that follows her school year. There are nice glimpses of life at the time - WPA and Kate Smith. The story was spritely and would probably keep a young reader's attention well.

NB - I listened to this narrated by Lois Smith. She did a good job, but I had to speed her up a bit as had such long pauses between sentences that it almost put me to sleep. Still, I had fun with it and it brought up some fond memories of my own Grandmothers, who were amazing women. :)

I’ve read this book time and over again, yet it never fails. It never fails to give me amusem*nt in life. It never fails to inform me of a simpler if not harder way of life. It never fails to impress me with the characters and the subtle changes in the main one. It never fails to make my eyes blurry at the end. It never fails to warm my heart and soul with it’s touching story. It never fails to teach me lessons and morals in a subtle yet simple way of Grandmotherly love. It never fails to change me each and every time I read it.

It is rare for me to come across a book that never fails me. When life gets tough I know I can always rely on this book to be there for me and bring love, hope, joy, and laughter into my life. It doesn’t matter what age you are or how many times you’ve read it, this book is always worth a read.

A funny year about a teenage girl having to leave Chicago and go live with her grandmother in the Midwest during the depression. Her grandmother is a very tough old bird and the majority of the town is afraid of her.

The story is witty, the characters are something else & the story will give you a good laugh.

I think I liked this even better than A Long Way from Chicago. Such wonderful writing. Richard Peck is an inspiration.