A Year Down Yonder

A Year Down Yonder

Richard Peck

Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

Copyright 2002

Pages: 144

Reading Level: 10-14 years

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary:

Mary Alice is sent to live with her Grandma during the Great Depression. Her first day of school in Grandma's town doesn't go so well, she gets on the bad side of the Mildred, the bully, who demands a dollar of her. Grandma turns the tables on her and Mildred ends up having to walk the five miles home barefoot. When Halloween rolls around, August Fluke Jr and his friends decide to knock down people's privies, but Grandma has a plan, she makes home-made glue and hides out in the shed by the privy, so she can throw the glue on the perpetrators. Grandma makes pecan and pumpkin pies for the school Halloween party. Armistice Day rolls around and the Legion Auxillary Ladies sell soup for a dollar a cup, but Grandma is cashier, so it's actually pay what you can afford. The money raised is given to Mrs. Abernathy and her son, a wheelchair-bound war veteran.For the Christmas pageant Mary is cast as the Virgin Mary, but the baby doll is switched out for the Burdick's newest member of the family that they can't take care of. Grandma is late to the pageant, but brings Mary's brother with her, she bought him a train ticket with the money from the furs of  the foxes she and Mary collected that winter. Royce McNabb moves into the small town and Carleen develops an instant crush on him. Mary and Ina-Rae set out to make Carleen think Royce has a crush on Ina-Rae for Valentines Day. Grandma hosts a tea for the Daughters of the American Revolution, and country bumpkin Effie Wilcox learns that the hoity-toity Mrs. L.J. Weidenbach is her long-lost sister.Grandma takes in a New York artist as a boarder and Mary Alice invites Royce over for a study-date. Grandma cameos as matchmaker, introducing the boarder (Arnold Green) to Mary Alice's English teacher, Miss Butler. Mary Alice survives her first tornado, and the school-year wraps up with a hayride that finds Royce and Mary Alice promising to exchange letters. “A year down yonder” leaves Mary Alice with a more tender-hearted view of country-life and Grandma Dowdel, and she hesitates to head back to Chicago. Mary Alice and Royce Marry at the end of World War II on Grandma's porch.

Recommendations and Conflict:

I would recommend this book to a sixth grader. The only conflicts I see in this book is having a grandma who didn't grow up all the way.

Reactions:

I enjoyed A Year Down Yonder, Grandma was a character I could relate to and had fun finding out what she would do next.