A Year Down Yonder

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright: 2000
Number of Pages: 130
Age: 10+
Genre: Contemporary

Summary:
This book, "A Year Down Yonder" is about a young girl named Mary Alice who goes to live with her grandmother for a while. Her grandmother was a different woman who did things just the way she wanted. Through the book it goes through the various adventures that Mary Alice has to go through. She learns different things from trying to steal peacans, to making the best glue around. Mary Alice was able to learn different things about herself, her grandmother, and how to live a different way of life. In the end of the book Mary Alice ended up marrying a young man that she knew from school. She did so happily with her grandmother there to hand her off.
My reaction
This book was awesome. I loved it because the grandmother was hillarious. She seemed just like a big kid at heart herself. She did things the way she wanted to and she was always able to take care of herself. I loved having Mary Alice there because she had no idea that he grandmother lived that way and she didn't know how to do any of the odd things that her grandmother did.
Who would benefit from this book?
I think that anyone could. Its a fun story that was well written and it was an easy read. I put a higher age because there are some things in there that might be hard to understand.
What problems might this book cause?
I think that if a younger child were to read this book they may take some of the things that grandmother did were ok to do. An example being with the glue that got put on the boy. I think that some children might think its ok to pull mean pranks on some people.