A Year Down Yonder

       

By: Richard Peck
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2000
Reading Level: 4.5 (Accelerated Reader)
Guided Reading



Description:
Historical Fiction, Newbery Medal Winner

It is 1937 and Mary Alice is a fifteen year old girl living during the Great Depression.  While her parents remain in Chicago to earn a living, Mary Alice is sent to stay with her grandma in a rural, Illinois town.  At first, Mary Alice does not look forward spending a whole year with her tough, outspoken grandmother.  However, as the year goes by Mary Alice begins to see that there is more to her grandmother than meets the eye.  Written by Richard Peck, A Year Down Yonder is a Newbery Medal winning classic that examines family relationships, determination, and the American spirit. 

*Teacher Resources for A Year Down Yonder

Supporting Electronic Resources:
Scholastic
This website offers many extension activities such as a discussion guide, related classroom activities, lesson plans, and more about the author.
Teacher Vision
Teacher Vision is a great source for activities to support A Year Down Yonder.  Cross-curricular activities and comprehension tools such as Venn Diagrams, timelines for sequencing events, and discussion questions are all available on the website.

Vocabulary Words:
recession, quiver, trudge, vittle, transfix, deign, simper, repertoire, brazen, preen, capitulate, benediction, invocation, cobhouse, nuzzle, coronary, valedictorian

Teaching Suggestions:
-Use this book to compare/contrast urban and rural life in the U.S.
-Focus on the development and growth of the relationship between Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel

Comprehension Strategies:
Pre-Reading- Preview A Year Down Yonder, looking at setting and time period in particular.  Discuss the difference between urban and rural settings as well as what life was like during the Great Depression.  This will help students to better understand how Mary Alice feels at the beginning of the story.
Post-Reading- Complete a story frame of A Year Down Yonder.  This story frame both sequences events and shows the progression of Mary Alice's relationship with Grandma Dowdel from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

Writing Activities:
Have students pretend that they are Mary Alice and ask them to write two letters to their parents in Chicago.  The first should be a letter that explains how they feel when they first get to Grandma's house.  The second should be a letter that explains how they feel at the end of the year as they are about to return home to Chicago.  Ask them to focus on the differences in their emotions.