A YEAR DOWN YONDER

Winner of the 2001 Newbery Award, A Year Down Yonder is the charming companion to Peck's 1999 Newbery Honor winner, A Long Way from Chicago. This time, Mary Alice regales us with tales of life with Grandma Dowdel during a long year spent in Grandma's "hick town," where no one is as modern, as sophisticated, or as clever as Mary Alice is. However, Grandma Dowdel is every bit as snappish, quirky, and gruff as always. While the same wonderful storytelling quality infuses this volume, and Lois Smith's clearly middle-aged voice is very effective in reading Grandma's crusty dialogue, Mildred Burdick's surly sneer, and Miss Butler's teachery tones, it is a bit less effective for Mary Alice's youthful first-person narration. Nevertheless, the humor of Mary Alice's situation and her many scrapes with a cast of eccentric small-town characters are guaranteed to entertain. T.B. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]