A Long Way From Chicago (Puffin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Follow a brother and sister in this coming-of-age tale filled with heart, history, and just the right amount of trouble!

When Joey and his sister Mary Alice leave Chicago to spend the summer with their Grandma Dowdel, they expect a quiet visit in a sleepy country town. Instead, they get nine summers of jaw-dropping surprises, laugh-out-loud mischief, and moments that will change them forever. Grandma may be older than dirt and tougher than a rusty tractor, but she’s got a heart of gold—and a habit of teaching life lessons in unexpected (and hilarious) ways. . .

RICHARD PECK (1934-2018) was born in Decatur, Illinois and lived in New York City for nearly 50 years. The acclaimed author of 35 novels for children and young adults, he won the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder, a Newbery Honor for A Long Way from Chicago, the Scott O’Dell Award for The River Between Us, the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Are You in the House Alone?, a Boston Globe-Horn BookAward Honor for The Best Man, and the Christopher Medal for The Teacher’s Funeral. He was the first children’s author ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal, and was twice a National Book Award Finalist.  

INTRODUCTION

Young readers who live in age-segregated suburbs need the wisdom, and the wit, of elders. After all, this is a young generation who no longer even have to write thank-you notes for gifts from grandparents. They rob themselves of their own histories and are once again at the mercy of each other.

But stories are better than that. They champion the individual, not the mass movement. They mix up the gl*