Meanwhile, Grandma hosts a tea for the Daughters of the American Revolution and country bumpkin Effie Wilcox learns that the hoity-toity Mrs. With the help of best friend Ina-Rae, Mary Alice fools Carleen into believing that Royce sent Ina-Rae a valentine. Carleen develops an instant crush on Royce. Mary Alice stirs the town up by submitting anonymous articles to a community newspaper and a new boy-Royce McNabb-arrives just in time for Valentine's Day. But when Mildred Burdick's illegitimate baby turns up in the manger, Christmas is anything but a silent night. Moonlit winter nights find Grandma and Mary Alice trapping foxes with the extra money, Grandma buys Joey a train ticket and he arrives just in time for the Christmas pageant. Dowdel dishes up home-baked pies made with 'borrowed' pecans and pumpkins.

With the help of a strategically strung wire and a pan of glue, Grandma Dowdel trips up Augie's trickery, with a hot coat of glue that sticks 'till kingdom come.' Luckily, Grandma's treats prove far sweeter than her tricks: at the party, Mrs. gets in the habit of knocking down privies for pre-Halloween amusement. October brings plenty of other trouble, however, when another teen hooligan - August Fluke Jr. Faced with a barefoot 5-mile-hike home, Mildred loses interest in making trouble for Mary Alice. Mildred brazenly follows Mary Alice home, demanding a dollar-but Grandma Dowdel turns the tables on the tyrant, slyly untying Mildred's stolen horse.

Day one in the new high school finds Mary Alice getting on the wrong side of the local bully, Mildred Burdick. Having no choice in the matter, Mary Alice arrives by train in September with her beloved cat Bootsie and prized Philco radio. Grandma's Hickory farming community could not be more different from Chicago if it tried, and the grandmother Mary Alice remembers from childhood is a no-nonsense country gal. Her brother, Joey Dowdel, joins the army while Mary Alice is less than thrilled with the arrangement. 15-year-old Mary Alice is sent downstate to live with Grandma Dowdel while her mother and father remain in Chicago. The year is 1938, and the Great Depression has hit the Dowdel family hard.

It is a sequel to A Long Way from Chicago, which itself received a Newbery Honor.

144 pp (first edition, hardback)130 pp (2000)Ī Year Down Yonder is a novel by Richard Peck published in 2000 and won the Newbery Medal in 2001.

A year down under richard peck