Except for a pat and unnecessary twist at the end, when Josh's father shows up just in time for Peck to hint at a marital reconciliation, this clever caper doesn't miss a beat. The author takes equal care in creating his characters, which include a string of silly English au pairs hired by Josh's newly single mom Josh's 12-year-old sister (``I'm virtually thirteen and emotionally fourteen'') trendy teachers (the reading teacher calls his course Linear Decoding). To Peck's (The Last Safe Place on Earth) credit, the time travel mechanisms seem almost plausible even better, they don't overpower the story. Before long Aaron has imported a few characters from 1923 into the present, where Josh must cope with them.

Sixth-grader Josh, from an upscale Manhattan home, gets mixed up in his best friend Aaron's experiments with ``cellular reorganization'' (Aaron compares the process to faxing himself through cyberspace Josh calls it time-travel). Her extended visit is filled with moonlit schemes, romances both foiled and founded, and a whole parade of fools made to suffer in unusual (and always hilarious) ways. Her extended visit is filled with moonlit schemes, romances both foiled and founded, and a whole parade of fools made to suffer in unusual (and always hilarious) ways.Wise, exuberant, and slyly heartwarming, Mary Alice's story is a fully satisfying companion to the celebrated A Long Way from Chicago.Available for purchase at:Amazon - Audiobook (CD format)Barnes & Noble - Audiobook (CD format)Books A Million - Audiobook (CD format)IndieBound - Audiobook (CD format)Powell's - Audiobook (CD format)Walmart - Audiobook (CD format)Apple - Audiobook (Downloadable format)Audible - Audiobook (Downloadable format)audiobooks.Amiable characters, fleet pacing and witty, in-the-know narration will keep even the non-bookish interested in this semi-fantastic adventure. Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel return for more astonishing, laugh-out-loud adventures when 15-year-old Mary Alice moves in with her spicy grandmother for the year. A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck: A PDF and Digital Novel Study Created by Jean Martin's Balanced Literacy This is an easy-to-use, custom-made, independent work packet for middle graders (4-7) who are reading the Newbery Award Medal winner, A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck. Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel return for more astonishing, laugh-out-loud adventures when fifteen-year-old Mary Alice moves in with her spicy grandmother for the year.

A year down under richard peck