Title: A Long Way from Chicago

Author: Peck, Richard

Book Preview:

Do most kids want to go their grandma's house for a week in the summer?  Joey and his sister, Mary Alice, visited their grandma every summer for a week.  There wasn't much to do at Grandma's house, but somehow they managed to keep busy.  Grandma made it a summer that they would never forget.  Mary and Joey saw their first dead body, watched Grandma tell a few lies, use a shotgun on robbers, brew her own beer, and feed the poor with fish that she caught illegally.

Rating:

This book had a good description of grandma’s small town. It also kept me fairly interested. Grandma Dowdel didn't seem like a loving grandma. She didn't meet Joey and Mary Alice at the train station when they arrived. This seemed odd to me. My Grandma would have been at the train station if I were visiting. Grandma Dowdel was also dishonest in front of her grandchildren. She lied about a mouse in the milk from Cowgills' Dairy Farm and switching the gooseberry pie with Mr. Pennypacker when she was afraid her pie wasn't going to win first place. When she won 2nd place, she took the blue ribbon from her hat and held it like a first place blue ribbon.

Grandma Dowdel didn't seem to protect Joey and Mary Alice from unpleasant things. They looked at a dead body in grandma's living room. This was the first dead body they both had ever seen. Also, grandma knew the Cowgill boys would burglarize her house, because she led them to believe she would be gone one evening. She had her grandchildren sit quietly in the dark house and wait until the boys came. Grandma had her shotgun in her hand. This seemed a little hard to believe.

Grandma did do some helpful things in a sneaky way. She tricked people into thinking they bought so-called Lincoln items at an auction. When the sheriff discovered this, he approached grandma to tell the truth, but grandma blackmailed the sheriff instead. Grandma made the sheriff give Effie Wilcox's house back to her. . I don't know why the parents would want their children to be exposed to some of these situations.

I found grandma to be somewhat interesting but hard to believe at times. At times the book was boring because grandma wasn’t doing something illegal or the event was boring.

The story was organized, because it went in the order of the summers that Joey and Mary Alice visited. There were some parts in the book that didn’t flow with the book.

The description in this book was only fair. I really couldn’t get a picture in my head of Mary Alice, Joey, and Grandma Dowdel. This took away a lot of fun away from the book. They really didn’t talk too much about the town so it was hard to get a picture in my mind of the town.

The events were boring because when it would get to a good part it would end off at that point. Like when the sheriff was drunk hanging over the rail the chapter would end. [Brett]

The description was pretty good, but still a little confusing like, they use stuff words that don’t make sense.

The events were exciting, but not so much to keep my interest. Some events were little childish.

The book was organized, but some events were a little scattered around.

The ending was like all ending, but it was pretty good.

The characters were good, but two of the characters were boring. [Talha]