Friday, December 15, 2006

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, 2001


Setting: Somewhere between Chicago and St. Louis, Illinois, USA - "in one of the towns the [Wabash] railroad tracks cut in two."
Time period: 1937, the Roosevelt recession.

Main character(s): Grandma Dowdel. Mary Alice Dowdel, 15, narrator.

Winner of the 2001 Newbery Medal. An ALA Notable book. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
The plot: Mary Alice is sent to her Grandma Dowdel because her father lost his job and her parents have to move to a tiny room. From her eccentric grandmother she learns how to always have a full larder in lean times, and even have enough to share. For instance, commandeering flour from Halloween pranksters, ramming farm equipment into a tree and stealing pumpkins - all in order to bake "vittles" for half the town at the Halloween party. Grandma also teaches her how to earn money from fox urine, walnut hulls and a couple of traps. But Grandma is not only about survival; she also has handy matchmaking skills, using a snake in the attic, a naked - no, nude - postmistress and a good dinner. Mary Alice grows into the role of Grandma's partner-in-crime, and also succeeds in a few plots herself. And she puts her newly-acquired matchmaking skills to good use.

My favorite quote: "Mrs. Dowdel, I'm here to tell you that you're twice as bald-faced and brazen and, yes, I have to say, shameless as the rest of us girls put together. In the presence of these witnesses I'm in record for saying you outdo the most two-faced, two-fisted shortchanger, flimflam artist, and full-time extortionist anybody ever saw working in this part of the country. And all I have to say is, God bless you for your good work."

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