A Year Down Yonder

Title: “A Year Down Yonder”

Author: Richard Peck                                     

Genre: Children’s Novel/historical Fiction

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Copyright Date: 2000

Pages in Book: 144 pages

Reading Level: 12 years and up

Summary: This is a story about a young girl named Mary Alice, who was sent to live with her Grandma Dowdel during the Great Depression. One thing to know was that Mary Alice was from Chicago, and her Grandma lived in a farming community. Needless to say, Mary Alice was anything less than thrilled about this move. One the first day of school, Mary Alice gets into a little “tiff” with the school bully, Mildred. Mildred follows Mary Alice home, trying to bully a dollar out of her. Luckily, Mary Alice has a Grandma that is up to no good a lot of the time, so while this was happening, Grandma sets Mildred’s horse free, forcing Mildred to walk all the way home. Throughout the rest of the book, Grandma is up to her usual mischief, and ends up always doing something nice to people because of it. One winter, Mary Alice lands the part of “Mary” and the entire Christmas Pageant was a mess. Everything that could go wrong did. A young boy named Roy moves into the city, and with the help of Mary Alice’s best friend, they pretend that Roy is interested in Ina-Rae. Mary Alice and Roy begin dating, when the school year is about to end, they promise to write each other. After WWII ends, Mary Alice and Roy get married on Grandma’s front porch.

Reaction: I thought this book was absolutely adorable. I loved Grandma Dowdel, and thought she was hilarious! She was always up to no good, but she would always go out of her way to help people. Everything that Grandma did was so funny! She filled this book with humor and emotions. I thought it was so cute that Mary Alice and Roy ended up together, too. Even though she didn’t want to move to the farm with her Grandma, it’s incredible to think that if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have met Roy and gotten married to him.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this probably to any girl within the reading level. I doubt that many boys would appreciate it as much, but just from reading it this time, I was able to get a sweet message out of it. I think it’s an appropriate book for children to read, and one that the readers will get a lot of giggles out of.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: Honestly, I didn’t have any problems with this book. I thought it was very well written, and one that had a good message.