A Long Way From Chicago
A Novel in Stories
From Library Staff
Each summer during the Great Depression, Joey and Mary Alice visit their outrageous grandmother in rural Illinois.
Grandma Dowdel is not a good influence--and that's one good reason why Joey likes visiting her. Each August, from 1929 to 1935, he and his younger sister travel by train from Al Capone's Chicago to spend a week with Grandma in her scrappy small Illinois town.
(4th -6th graders)
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. (gr 5 - 8)
From the critics
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sassaman thinks this title is suitable for between the ages of 9 and 12
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"A rollicking celebration of an eccentric grandmothers childhood memories. Set in the 1930s, the book follows Joe and Mary Alice Dowel as they make an annual August trek to visit their grandmother who lives in a sleepy Illnois town somewhere in Chicago and St. Louis.Grandma Dowel takes matters into her own hands to intimidate a banker who won't control his unruly sons, and forces the bank to rescind a foreclosure on an elderly house. Readers will be eager to join the Grandma, Joey, and Mary Alice on such escapades as preparing an impressive funeral for Cheatham, catching fish from a stolen boat and arranging the elopement of Vandalia Eubanks and Stibbs." (Novelist Reviews)
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