Book Review: A Year Down Yonder

Sometimes it’s good to sit down and read a Newberry Award winning book that hasn’t been read yet.

In a few word, this is how I would describe A Year Down Yonder:

Entertaining Great World Building Whimsical Wonderful Characters Witty Realistic Happily Ever After

I took the above photo in my asparagus patch. It seemed fitting for a book review of this farming community story. In this book review, we'll find out why A Year Down Yonder qualified for a Newbery Award.

What is the Newbery?

The short answer: The best children's/young adult book of the year based on story in text.

There is an award for the best children's/young adult book of the year based on illustrations. These books win the Caldecott Award.

Only a special story, a story that breaks open a heart, mind, a lifetime of raising and stirs new thoughts can win a Newberry medal. Ahh, perhaps you, potential reader can see what caliber A Year Down Yonder is. I don’t say was, as in only for the year it won, but “is” for every year following.

We first meet Mary Alice, a fifteen-year-old living with her family in Chicago. Her father loses his job during an economically challenging time in America. Her parents must move. Mary Alice is sent to live with her grandmother in a farming community so different from the city.

Although Mary Alice is clearly the main character, we are immediately drawn to Grandma Dowdel. Mary Alice vividly takes us on her journey as she learns how to survive, wheel and deal, bake pies, endure, fight for what is right, make food from war time pennies, walk long distances, stay warm in the bitter cold, and trap, all from the feet of grandma.

The story is full of spark, whimsy, truth, rascals, the inconsiderate and the needy struggling to survive during some very lean years in a small farming town.

I highly recommend this engaging book not only for individual readers, but also for classrooms. And, while the story is supposedly for young folk, readers of any age will get a laugh and a tug at their heart while turning the pages.

#newbery #greatreads #readers #teachers #youngadultbooks

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