From Publishers Weekly
Peck (Strays Like Us) first created the inimitable central figure of this novel in a previously published short story. Although the narrator, Joey, and his younger sister, Mary Alice, live in the Windy city during the reign of Al Capone and Bugs Moran, most of their adventures occur "a long way from Chicago," during their annual down-state visits with Grandma Dowdel. A woman as "old as the hills," "tough as an old boot," and larger than life ("We could hardly see her town because of Grandma. She was so big, and the town was so small"), Grandma continually astounds her citified grandchildren by stretching the boundaries of truth. In eight hilarious episodes spanning the years 1929-1942, she plots outlandish schemes to even the score with various colorful members of her community, including a teenaged vandal, a drunken sheriff and a well-to-do banker. Readers will be eager to join the trio of Grandma, Joey and Mary Alice on such escapades as preparing an impressive funeral for Shotgun Cheatham, catching fish from a stolen boat and arranging the elopement of Vandalia Eubanks and Junior Stubbs. Like Grandma Dowdel's prize-winning gooseberry pie, this satire on small-town etiquette is fresh, warm and anything but ordinary. Ages 9-12. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-When Joey and his sister Mary Alice travel from their home in Chicago to their Grandmother's small town, they don't expect the crazy adventures they encounter there. By Richard Peck. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
"Are all my memories true? Every word. And growing truer with the years." Joey Dowdel reminisces about the weeks from summers past that he and his sister spent at their Grandma Dowdel's house. Chicago during the gangster years provides the backdrop and counterpoint for a series of adventures in which Grandma emerges "larger than life." Richard Peck's Newbery Honor book is full of assertive characters, exaggeration, understatement, and strong family attachments. Ron McLarty shares his delight in the emergence of Grandma as mastermind and keen judge of character through his skillful development of each summer's episode. Pace, intonation, and emotion are those of an engaged storyteller. Vivid supporting characters also make this performance is rich and full. Be prepared for tears of mirth and tears of compassion. A.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Gr. 6^-10. Grandma Dowdel is not a good influence--and that's one good reason why Joey likes visiting her. Each August, from 1929 (when Joey is nine) to 1935, he and his younger sister travel by train from Al Capone's Chicago to spend a week with Grandma in her scrappy small Illinois town. In seven short stories, one for each summer, Grandma lies, cheats, trespasses, and contrives to help the town underdogs (including her own worst enemy) outwit the banker, the Holy Rollers, and the establishment. Part vaudeville act, part laconic tall tale, the stories, with their dirty tricks and cunning plots, make you laugh out loud at the farce and snicker at the reversals. Like Grandma, the characters are larger-than-life funny, yet Peck is neither condescending nor picturesque. With the tall talk, irony, insult, and vulgarity, there's also a heartfelt sense of the Depression's time and place, when a knot of people wait outside the store for the day-old bread to become half price, and Grandma defies the sheriff, poaches catfish, and fries it up to feed the Depression drifters with her home-brewed beer ("They didn't thank her. She wasn't looking for thanks"). The viewpoint is adult--elderly Joe is looking back now at the changes he saw in those seven years--but many young people will recognize the irreverent, contrary voices of their own family legends across generations. The first story, "Shotgun Cheatham's First Night above Ground," appeared in the anthology Twelve Shots: Stories about Guns (1997), edited by Harry Mazer. Hazel Rochman


From Kirkus Reviews
In a novel that skillfully captures the nuances of small-town life, an elderly man reminisces about his annual trips from Chicago to his grandmother's house in rural Illinois during the Depression. When the book opens, Joey and his sister, Mary Alice, nine and seven, respectively, learn that they will be spending a week every August with Grandma Dowdel. In eight vignettes, one for each summer from 1929 - 1935, with the final story set when Joey's troop train passes through in 1942, Peck (Strays Like Us, 1998) weaves a wry tale that ranges from humorous to poignant. Grandma Dowdel, with her gruff persona and pragmatic outlook on life, embodies not only the heart of a small town but the spirit of an era gone by. She turns the tables on a supercilious reporter from the big city, bests the local sheriff, feeds the drifters of the Depression, inspires a brawl between elderly (ancient) war heroes, and more. Peck deftly captures the feel of the times, from the sublime bliss of rooting around the ice bin at the local store for a nickel Nehi during the dog days of summer, to a thrilling flight in a biplane. Remarkable and fine. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice -- two city slickers from Chicago -- make their annual summer visits to Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town? August 1929: They see their first corpse, and he isn't resting easy.

August 1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back. August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma trespass, poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry -- all in one day. And there's more, as Joey and Mary Alice make seven summer trips to Grandma's -- each one funnier than the year before -- in self-contained chapters that readers can enjoy as short stories or take together for a rollicking good novel. In the tradition of American humorists from Mark Twain to Flannery O'Connor, popular author Richard Peck has created a memorable world filled with characters who, like Grandma herself, are larger than life and twice as entertaining.

SYNOPSIS

Set during the years 1929-1942, and told in eight engaging episodes, this fresh and funny novel recounts a boy and his sister's annual summer trips to rural Illinois to visit their eccentric grandmother. Grandma Dowdel, a remarkable larger-than-life character, continually astounds her "city-slicker" grandchildren with her nonconformist behavior and her gutsy, take-charge attitude.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Peck (Strays Like Us) first created the inimitable central figure of this novel in a previously published short story. Although the narrator, Joey, and his younger sister, Mary Alice, live in the Windy city during the reign of Al Capone and Bugs Moran, most of their adventures occur "a long way from Chicago," during their annual down-state visits with Grandma Dowdel. A woman as "old as the hills," "tough as an old boot," and larger than life ("We could hardly see her town because of Grandma. She was so big, and the town was so small"), Grandma continually astounds her citified grandchildren by stretching the boundaries of truth. In eight hilarious episodes spanning the years 1929-1942, she plots outlandish schemes to even the score with various colorful members of her community, including a teenaged vandal, a drunken sheriff and a well-to-do banker. Readers will be eager to join the trio of Grandma, Joey and Mary Alice on such escapades as preparing an impressive funeral for Shotgun Cheatham, catching fish from a stolen boat and arranging the elopement of Vandalia Eubanks and Junior Stubbs. Like Grandma Dowdel's prize-winning gooseberry pie, this satire on small-town etiquette is fresh, warm and anything but ordinary.

Children's Literature - Sharon Salluzzo

Each summer during the Great Depression, Joey and his sister Mary Alice board a train in Chicago and travel halfway to St. Louis to visit their grandma in a small town in Illinois. There they meet an interesting cast of characters, from the corpse of Shotgun Cheatham, to the bad Cowgill boys who blew up mailboxes and overturned outhouses, and to Vandalia Eubanks and the phantom brakeman. Every year they would learn a little more about their spunky grandmother through her unusual and intriguing interactions with the townsfolk. Peck brings the time period to life through small details, such as selecting a bottle of orange soda from a "sheet-metal vat of ice water with a bottle opener hanging down on a piece of twine," as well as via major symbols of the time such as drifters, gangsters, and that new mode of transportation, the airplane. Warmly nostalgic, beautifully written, humorous, and full of thought-provoking interpersonal relationships.

VOYA - Richard Gercken

With customary precision Peck perfectly describes his book in the subtitle: a novel in stories. Joey and his sister Mary Alice have a series of adventures on summer visits to their grandmother in a small town south of Chicago. While Grandma Dowdel is the central character, young readers will identify with her because she is a rebel at heart, described by the local sheriff as a one-woman crime wave. Grandma's crimes, on behalf of the lonely and needy, involve Joey and Mary Alice in everything from corpses rising out of their coffins to ghosts walking at night. Joey, who is nine in the first story, becomes fifteen-year-old Joe in the last one. His wry humor and shrewd observation of his elders often meet their match in his smart-talking sister as Peck depicts the gender politics between siblings. The book is filled with descriptions, insights, and glowing one-liners. The stories take place in the '30s, and Peck subtly evokes the era. He never explains anything that the characters of that time would take for granted. This book is ideal for the young person in your life who likes to read or the one that you hope will. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-When Joey and his sister Mary Alice travel from their home in Chicago to their Grandmother's small town, they don't expect the crazy adventures they encounter there. By Richard Peck. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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