A Year Down Yonder by: Richard Peck

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Publisher: Puffin

Copyright Date: 2000

Number of Pages: 130

Reading Level: 9-12

Summary:

This is a humerous book about a girl named Mary Alice from Chicago who is forced to go live with her Grandma Dowdel in a small Illinois town after the depression hit her family hard. Her grandma is an unlady-like bear of a woman who is good at shooting guns and getting what she wants from her neighbors. Mary Alice is horrified at some of the things that her grandma does because everyone in the town is frightened of what she might do to them. Her grandma takes her everywhere with her to take part in her mischieveious plots. At the start of her time there Mary Alice has her money stolen from the school bully. The girl follows her home to get more money from her but her grandma ends up tying the girls shoes up to her horse and slapping the horse on the butt so that it will run home to the owners it was stolen from. The girl wasn't seen at school after that. Around halloween time (a very popular holiday in that town) a few things happened. First, apparently it was tradition for the neighborhood boys to go around the town distroying everyone's privvys. Grandma Dowdel wouldn't stand for that. She and Mary Alice made her grandma's famous glue that sticks from here till kingdom come and they set up a trap in the back yard. When the boys come to destroy the privvy, they are tripped by a rope that was part of the trap and Grandma Dowdel poured the glue on the leader's head. For a long time after that his hair grew back in only tufts which made him look like a plucked chicken. The next thing that happened was they were going to make pies for the Halloween party. Grandma Dowdel was told she could have any pecans that wer eon the ground around Old Man Nyquist's pecan tree. Well, there wasn't enough pecans for Grandma so she broke into his barn and fired up the tractor and rammed it so hard into the tree that it fell backwards. After that, there were enough pecans that they could hardly fit them all into their gunny sacks. The book is packed full of stuff like that! But not only was she witty and mischevious but she was caring and thoughtful in her own tough way as well. At the turkey shoot the town held every year they would sell soup to support a local lady's organization. Grandma Dowdel would charge extra to some people but she wouldn't make some people pay because she knew they couldn't afford it. She would give all the money to a poor lady trying to support her ill son. The money that she recieved would help pay for food for the whole year. Grandma Dowdel also went hunting for foxes in the middle of the night and she sold the fox furs to a fur trader. Mary Alice didn't know at the time but the money that her grandma got from the fox furs was used to buy a train ticket for Mary Alice's brother to come visit. She also made a halo for Mary Alice so that she would look prettier than Carleen Lovejoy at the school christmas nativity play.

Grandma Dowdel wasn't the only one to be up to no good though. Mary Alice had her dhare of mischief. A new kid moved into town named Royce McNabb. He was gorgeous and Carleen Lovejoy was all eyes for him from the beginning. Carleen was the school snob so Mary Alice couldn't stand for that. So, on Valentines day she and her friend Ina-Rae came up with a plan. Mary Alice wrote her a valentine from each of the boys in the class. She would make a scene about it so that only Carleen Lovejoy would hear. It worked. It drove Carleen insane. Mary Alice also wrote little article for the news paper called Newsie Notes. She would write snippets about what was going on in the community.

Finally, Mary Alice got the courage up to ask Royce to tutor her in math - she was lousy at math. He said ok. She planned to do it at an hour that her grandma would be napping so that she wouldn't be disturbed. It just so happens that at the time they had an artist named Arnold Green staying with them from New York City who was there to paint the wall of the post office. In the middle of the study session there was a loud scream and Maxine Patch came running out from the attic room where Arnold was staying and all she was wearing was a flower but she had a snake that was clinging to her like it would never let go. She went running from the house just as Grandma Dowdel woke up shot gun in hand. She thought the scene was so funny so she shot off her gun so that everyone would see Maxine running down the street naked. Royce left shortly after that a bit shell shocked and Mary Alice thought that that would be the last that she would be seeing of Royce.

In the end however, Royce graduated high school and asked if he could write to Mary Alice while he was at college. Of course she said yes. She ended up moving back to Chicago - after having a debate with her grandma about whether she could stay. In the end she went back to her parents. She and Royce McNabb were married at Grandma Dowdels house on his three-day pass from the army. The End!

Who would benefit from reading this book/ who would I recommend this book to?

This is a great light hearted book that I think anyone would enjoy. It is hilarious but it also has moments of love and tenderness. I definately benefitted from reading this book. I would recommend this to everyone.

What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?

Well, Grandma Dowdel steals and swears and does what she wants, so parents who are extremely strict would want to be careful with what their kids take from this book. But other than that it is wonderful.

My Reaction:

This is one of my favorite books that I read this semester. I love comedy books. It is so awesome how an author can make you laugh just by using words and descriptions. I thought that it was well written. It is a book that I will be keeping.