Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's 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.
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) 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.
