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Title details for A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck - Available

A Long Way from Chicago

A Novel in Stories

#1 in series

by Richard Peck
Ron McLarty
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
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 Cowgilll boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back with a dead mouse and a bottle of milk.
August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma to trespass, pinch property, poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry—all in one day.
And there's more—much more—as Joey and Mary Alice make seven summer trips to Grandma's, each one funnier and more surprising than the year before. In the grand storytelling tradition of American humorists from Mark Twain to Flannelly O'Connor, Richard Peck has created a memorable world filled with characters who, like Grandma herself, are larger than life and twice as entertaining. And year round, you are sure to enjoy your stay with them.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Grandma Dowdel

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 10, 2005

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739330753
      • File size: 123778 KB
      • Duration: 04:17:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 5
    • Lexile® Measure: 750
    • Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
    • Text Difficulty: 3-4

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      For those who grew up in storytelling families, there's nothing more comforting than a voice settling in to tell a family tale. A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO will put you in mind of storytelling afternoons on the front porch. Peck's Newbery Honor title fairly begged to be recorded, for it's the seven episodic chapters--one for each summer that Joey and Mary Alice visit their gun-totin' Grandma Dowdel in her Illinois town--that make the book memorable. Ron McLarty adopts the perfect unruffled tone as he relates the series of outrageous tales, all taking place from 1929 to 1935 and starring the gruff and grumble Grandma Dowdel and her two Chicago grandchildren. A cast of small-town characters--eccentric, pompous, or unpretentious in turn--complements the story. A gem! T.B. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      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. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 31, 1998
      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5
  • Lexile® Measure:750
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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