A Season of Gifts
From ChildLitWiki
Contents |
by Richard Peck
Illustrated by Brandon Dorman
Series Title: Grandma Dowdel
Number in Series: 3
Buy from Kepler's, an Independent Bookseller
Notes
Bibliographic Data
Original Publication Date: September 2009
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Imprint: Dial
ISBN 9780803730823
Hardcover Price: $16.99
Paperback Price: $
Number of Pages: 164
Best for ages: 9 up
Library of Congress Descriptor: A companion novel to: A Long Way from Chicago: a Novel in Stories and A Year Down Yonder. Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel.
Categorization
Type of Book: Chapter/Fiction
Genres: Rural Life, Family Life, Humor, Historical Fiction
Topics and Themes: Families, Country, Small Towns, Humor, Historical, Old-Young Relationships, Moving, New Kid, Pranks, Christmas, Bullies, Grumpy Old People, Related Stories, Eccentrics
Summary
In this standalone sequel to A Long Way from Chicago: a Novel in Stories and A Year Down Yonder, it's now twenty years later, the 50s, and Mrs. Dowdel has new neighbors -- a poor preacher and his family. As his son, Bob, tells the story, Mrs. Dowdel takes some getting used to. But in a series of vignettes both comic and moving, they find that this cantankerous and eccentric old woman enriches their lives and those of many others in the town.
Reviews
Richard Peck has had one of the longest and most successful careers in children's literature and, reading this, it's easy to see why. He just gets better and better. A SEASON OF GIFTS shows clearly that there's really no one else with Peck's remarkable combination of gifts. He has the gift of Twain, a humorist whose comedy is both intelligent and moving. He has the gift of Kipling, a craftsman of razor-sharp prose in which every word is carefully chosen for maximum effect. And he has the gift of Rowling, a constructor of intricate and tightly woven plots.
Peck employs his remarkable gifts in the service of a character unique in children's books, a field in which children are almost always the heroes. Here the main character, moving force, and heroine is a crabby 90-year-old, tough as a goat, with nothing warm or fuzzy in her demeanor at all. In Peck's world, adults are still in charge and wiser than children, and children grow through their relationships with intelligent and caring grown-ups. Imagine that! This is a treasure and a delight. -- Matt Berman
Excerpt
So we Barnharts had moved in next door to a haunted house, if a house can be haunted by a living being. But the old lady who lived over there had to be just this side of the grave with one foot in it. She looked older than the town. But she was way too solid to be a ghost. You sure couldn't see through her. You could barely see around her.
Publisher Info and Jacket Copy
Relateds
Other Books by Richard Peck
Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats
Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death
Don't Look and it Won't Hurt
The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp
Dreamland Lake
Father Figure
The Ghost Belonged to Me
Ghosts I Have Been
The Last Safe Place on Earth
Lost in Cyberspace
Monster Night at Grandma's House
Remembering the Good Times
Representing Super Doll
Unfinished Portrait of Jessica
Voices After Midnight
Strays Like Us
A Long Way from Chicago: a Novel in Stories
Fair Weather
The River Between Us
A Year Down Yonder
The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts
Here Lies the Librarian
On the Wings of Heroes
Grumpy Old People
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgeson Burnett
Queen of Hearts by Vera and Bill Cleaver
George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl
Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
The House Without a Christmas Tree by Gail Rock
The Thanksgiving Treasure by Gail Rock
Granny the Pag by Nina Bawden
The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg
Other Editions
Concerns
Violence: A large turtle is killed for soup. A boy is bullied and humiliated.
Sex: An unwed teen is pregnant and forced to marry.
Commercialism: Beer and cigarette brands mentioned.
Drugs: Drinking and drunkenness, including young teens, a drunk driving accident, teens smoke, kids smoke cornsilk.
Behavior: The message of the book is about the gifts we give each other, gifts of the spirit and the heart, which are remembered forever. Mrs. Dowdel may be crotchety, but she works tirelessly behind the scenes to improve the lives of others.
Education: The story takes place in the 50s, and there are some details about that era. Also, Mrs. Dowdel hearkens back to an earlier time when people made everything they needed from scratch, and allowed nothing to go to waste. Readers may be interested in some of her projects.
