A Year Down Yonder

A Year Down Yonder
Richard Peck
Dial, 2000
Pages: 130
Reading level: 9-12
Genre: Historical Fiction

Mary-Alice's family has been hit hard by the Great Depression, and her family can't afford to have Mary-Alice around for a while, so they send her off to Grandma Dowel's house. Mary-Alice is very afraid, because grandma is a very scary person. She is big and tall, and wears mens clothing. When Mary-Alice first gets their, she gets on the bad side of a bully, who demands a dollar from her. Mary-Alice doesn't have a dollar, so she takes the bully home to have grandma give her a dollar. When they get their, grandma is very nice and gives the bully food and talks to her really nice. Then while she is eating, grandma goes and unties the horse. It turns out that the horse was stolen, and grandma knew it would go back to it original home. Another time, grandma poured glue all over a boy who was trying to tip over her outhouse. Yet another time, she plowed into a neighbor's tree to knock the walnuts out so she could gather them for her pie. Although Grandma Dowel might see rough on the exterior, she had a gold heart. She is the only friend of a grumpy old man, she makes pies for community events, raises money for a poor family, and she saves money for Mary-Alice to go home for Christmas to see her family. Although at first Mary-Alice is afraid of Grandma, she soon sees this heart of gold, and starts to warm up to her. She realizes that Grandma Dowel doesn't do things without a reason. Mary-Alice starts to gain confidence around her grandmother and others. One day, she asks a boy whom she likes to help her with math, but when he comes over, a naked lady runs out from upstairs. Grandma had an artist renting a room from her, and he had asked a local lady to come pose nude for him. She did, but soon saw the snake grandma kept there to eat the mice, and fled. While the woman was running around screaming, grandma opened the door. The woman ran out, and grandma got her gun and let out a shot. This alerted the neighbors immediately. When asked why she did that, grandma said, "That's too good a show to keep to ourselves." Mary-Alice was devastated that this happened when the boy was over, but he was amused. He liked her grandma. When it was time for Mary-Alice to leave, she didn't want too. She liked living with Grandma. But grandma told her she needed to be with her family, and the boy told her he would write her while he was at college. Mary-Alice left, but many years later came back to be married to the boy in her Grandma's house.

I would recommend this book to everyone, because I feel it is an all-around good-read.

Problems: This book might allow people to believe that the sometimes rash and rude things that grandma does are okay for everyone to do.

My reaction: I liked this book. It was very creative and funny.

My rating: ****