A Year Down Yonder

1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
A Year Down Yonder

Written by Richard Peck

Published by Scholastic

Publication Date: 2000

ISBN: 0-439-32197-2

2. PLOT SUMMARY
As a result of the Great Depression, Mary Alice has come from Chicago to live with her fiesty grandmother. Dreading living and going to school in what Mary Alice calls a "hick town," she must learn to live life at a slower pace. It isn't too long before Mary Alice is Grandma Dowdel's partner in crime, and Mary Alice ends up having one adventurous year with her grandmother that she is sorry to see come to an end.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Grandma Dowdel ranks near the top of my "All Time Favorite (Literature) Characters" list! I don't believe I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know such a colorful character through the pages of a book. Grandma Dowdel is definately a person you would want as your friend and not your enemy. The lines Grandma Dowdel delivers in this book are great...from describing a Ina Rae (one of Mary Alice's schoolmates) as "skinny as a toothpick with termites" to telling a WPA painter to give the post office "...two coats...the paint's about the only thing that's holding it up." The dialogue given to Grandma certainly helps create a character who has been hit by hard times, but is recovering well.

The reader quickly learns how resourceful a woman she is during the hard times left behind by the Great Depression. Richard Peck does a fantastic job at describing the setting and telling of the small town hardships people faced as they recovered from economic setback in 1937. From collecting pecans and pumpkins from neighbors' homes (without their knowledge) to helping the Daughters of the American Revolution with their annual Washington Tea, you can get a sense of how people helped each other out during this time period. How the neighbors turned out to help a fellow citizen is so beautifully presented in the chapter, "A Minute in the Morning" when the town comes to the aid of Mrs. Abernathy by holding a turkey shoot and selling mugs of burgoo to help raise money for her to care for her invalid son, wounded in the Great War. (And with Grandma doing the selling, she makes sure that everyone who can gives more than their fair share.)

After reading this book, I felt I had a good picture of what life was like for the citizens of a small town recovering from the depression. Peck's wonderful description of the setting and colorful characters stayed with me long after I read this book. I found myself laughing out loud many times as I read about how Grandma Dowdel out foxed many of the town's citizens. (My favorite scene? The description of a naked Maxine Patch running out of Grandma's house with only a snake wrapped around her body...that is the best!) This Newberry Award winner should be experienced by all!

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
*From Booklist--"Richard Peck's Newbery Award winner is a multi-layered story of small town life spiced with humor, love, and a bit of history."
*From Publisher's Weekly--"hilarious and poignant"

5. CONNECTIONS
*Students research FDR's New Deal programs mentioned in the book--the WPA and the CCC. How did programs like these help the country get back on it's feet?
*Read the prequal to this book, A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO. How does the story change with Joey telling it instead of Mary Alice? What do you think A YEAR DOWN YONDER would have been like if Joey had been the narrator instead of Mary Alice?