A Year Down Yonder

During the 1937 Roosevelt recession 15 year old Mary Alice is sent to the country to live with her odd grandma Mrs. Dowdel. Her family hadnt much money her older brother Joey was working out west. Having lived in Chicago it took time to adjust to the hick town and the very small high school where they didnt even have sophomores. After stepping of the train with about everything she owned including her cat Bootsie and her radio she expected to go to the house instead grandma made her walk to school. Immediately she was an outcast viewed as the rich girl from Chicago that wouldnt work. It helped that they knew her grandma as a strange trigger-happy woman who kept to herself. (She also had a way of shaking up the local populace with drama and surprises.) As the year when on she began to love the country as well as understand her grandmother better. Things were viewed different in the country stealing was considered "barrowing" and Mrs. Dowdel kept to these ways. Her grandmother was healthy for a woman her age and baked delicious pies and pastries, which Mary Alice enjoyed. She learned the meaning of hard work, how to keep a secret often helping her grandma in the middle of the night. By the end of the year young Mary Alice had learned some of lifes harder lessons. Though Mrs. Dowdel looked big and rough she had a kind loving heart which her grandaughter discovered as she often looked in on a poor friend Mrs. Abernathy. Mary Alice also realized that nothing would be too strange to happen to this town and some interesting characters wondered in during her yearlong visit an artist painting portraits, a Burdick baby, and Royce McNab a handsome senior and new kid as well. Mary Alice knew better to predict anything when it came to grandma Dowdel she even managed to play matchmaker in getting a couple married. During the book Mary Alice turns 16 and grows up she doesnt want to leave her aging grandmother though she knows that Mrs. Dowdel is perfectly capable of living by herself but most of all she doesnt want to admit she had fallen in love with the country. It was hard for her to leave but grandma told her "You take the kitten. (Bootsie also adjusted and had kittens.) Ill keep the cat. Ill keep the cat. You go on home to your folks. Itll be alright. I dont lock my doors."

Is there to be another sequeal? I have friends who want one and grandma Dowdel left the door open! It is a quick read for kids wanting a light good humored book this hits the spot. It can easily be read in an hour great for the lazy days of summer. Enjoy and have fun.