I loved A Long Way from Chicago so much, I just had to read the sequel A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck!
It's now 1937 - the Great Depression is over, but there is now a recession that has rocked the Dowdel family. Once again, Mary Alice's parents send her to stay with Grandma Dowdel. This time, instead of just staying for the summer, Mary Alice stays for the entire year and has to go to school in a one-room school house. Quite a change from her Chicago lifestyle! Her brother Joe is now older and on his own, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps planting trees in the western part of the country.
There are eight short stories of tales of life in a small Illinois town. Halloween tricks and treats, Christmas traditions and surprises, Valentine's Day cherry tarts, and young love. All are told by Mary Alice, who we didn't get to know very well in A Long Way from Chicago, but we see bloom in these stories.
I can't get enough of Grandma Dowdel! I want to read the final book in this series, A Season of Gifts, but I'm worried that I'll miss the characters too much when that book is finished!
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