A Year Down Yonder

Winner of the Newbery Medal
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the Century

“Peck charms readers once again with this entertaining sequel to A Long Way from Chicago”—School Library Journal (starred review)

It was within the pages of Richard Peck's Newbery Honor-winning A Long Way from Chicago that Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel first made their captivating debut. Now they're back for more astonishing, laugh-out-loud tales when fifteen-year-old Mary Alice moves in with her spicy grandmother for the year. Expect moonlit schemes, romances both foiled and founded, and a whole parade of fools made to suffer in unusual (and always hilarious) ways.

Wise, exuberant, and slyly heartwarming, this is a satisfying companion to Grandma Dowdel’s adventures in A Long Way from Chicago and A Season of Gifts.

Newbery Medal Winner
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Notable Book
Booklist Best Books of the Year
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
New York Times Best Seller

“Audience members will breathe a sigh of regret when the eventful year "down yonder" draws to a close.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Wit, gentleness, and outrageous farce.”—Booklist (starred review)

Winner of Newbery Medal Winner.

“"In this hilarious and poignant sequel to A Long Way to Chicago, Peck once again shows that country life is anything but boring."”

 —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Again, Peck has created a delightful, insightful tale that resounds with a storyteller's wit, humor, and vivid description." —School Library Journal

"With the same combination of wit, gentleness, and outrageous farce as Peck's Newbery Honor book, Long Way from Chicago, this sequel tells the story of Joey's younger sister, Mary Alice, 15, who spends the year of 1937 back with Grandma Dowdel in a small town in Illinois." —Booklist

RICHARD PECK (1934-2018) was born in Decatur, Illinois and lived in New York City for nearly 50 years. The acclaimed author of 35 novels for children and young adults, he won the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder, a Newbery Honor for A Long Way from Chicago, the Scott O’Dell Award for The River Between Us, the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Are You in the House Alone?, a Boston Globe-Horn BookAward Honor for The Best Man, and the Christopher Medal for The Teacher’s Funeral. He was the first children’s author ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal, and was twice a National Book Award Finalist.  

Twelve months with Grandma... can Mary Alice survive? Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois town were packed with enough surprises and drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she is fifteen and faces a whole long year with Grandma, a woman well known for shaking up her neighbors-and everyone else! All Mary Alice can know for certain is this: When trying to predict how life with Grandma might turn out ... better not.

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