A Long Way From Chicago

Set during the years 1929-1942, and told in eight engaging episodes, this fresh and funny novel recounts a boy and his sister's annual summer trips to rural Illinois to visit their eccentric grandmother. Grandma Dowdel, a remarkable larger-than-life character, continually astounds her "city-slicker" grandchildren with her nonconformist behavior and her gutsy, take-charge attitude.

Richard Peck created Grandma Dowdel in a short story called "Shotgun Cheatham's Last Night Above Ground," which became the first chapter of this book. He says, "Grandma is too sizable to be confined to a single story, too sizable and mystifying to her growing grandchildren, who in each visit discover in her a different woman." Mr. Peck has written more than twenty highly praised novels for young readers. He is a two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children's/young adult mystery. He has received several awards for the body of his work, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award. Richard Peck spent the first eighteen years of his life in Decatur, Illinois, "a middle-American town in a time when teenagers were considered guilty until proven innocent." He lives in New York City.