A Long Way from Chicago

During the wake for Shotgun Cheatham's in Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago, Grandma makes up a story about how the dead man got his nickname "Shotgun". She says that he got his name in the...

In the story, the four Cowgill brothers are the sons of Mr. Cowgill, the dairy farmer. Although we don't know the names of the oldest three boys, we are provided the name of the youngest: Ernie...

According to Grandma Dowdel, the true reason Shotgun Cheatham died penniless was because he was "an old reprobate" who failed to make something of himself while he was alive. He "lived poor and...

Grandma Dowdel commits a whole slew of illegal actions, but she does it for a good cause. She first steals a boat, which turns out to belong to Sheriff Dickerson. She then takes Joey and Mary...

A prominent problem at the beginning of A Long Way from Chicago is that neither child really knows, understands, appreciates, or even wants to be with their Grandma Dowdel. They see their grandma...

Effie Wilcox is a local gossip and friends with Grandma Dowdel. When Mary Alice and Joey are telling Grandma Dowdel about gossip they've heard, they say they heard it from a "humped-over lady with...

It's in Grandma's character profile to spin yarns and stretch the truth. This is a little wicked pleasure she indulges in whenever possible, partly to test people's gullibility and reaction to her...

Mrs. L.J. Weidenbach, the banker's wife, is a neighbor of Grandma Dowdel. She is a pompous lady, and each time she appears in the narrative, Grandma shrewdly tries to turn her lofty attitude to...

The story is a series of vignettes, each with its own small problem that needs to be solved depending on what is happening in the town that summer. But there are a couple of overarching conflicts...

Mary Alice is the younger sister of the narrator of the story, Joey McDowdell. She accompanies Joey on their yearly visits to their eccentric grandmother each summer, and, despite her age, is a...

Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs don't want their son to marry Vandelia Eubanks because they feel that the Eubanks family is socially inferior to their own; additionally, they also fear that Vandelia's mother...

I don't believe the town where Grandma Dowdell lives is actually named in the book. Joey describes going to her home on the train, "the Wabash Railroad's crack Blue Bird that left Dearborn Station...

In Chapter Two, Effie Wilcox has to use Grandma's privy because her own has been destroyed by the Cowgill brothers. Accordingly, the morning after the Cowgill brothers blow up Grandma's mailbox,...

Joey had been sitting "wedged in a corner, beginning to doze" at Shotgun Cheatham's wake when the commotion began. The gauze that hung down over the open coffin lid inexplicably began to move....

Grandma Dowdel is a bit of a loose cannon, isn't she? I hope you're enjoying this book. It's one of my favorites! Grandma Dowdel is one of the most enjoyable (and ornery!) characters in adolescent...

There are actually three main characters in the story. Mary Alice and Joey Dowdel visit their Grandma Dowdel every summer, and the book is a coming-of-age story for the grandchildren. Each new...

The incident about which you are asking actually occurs in the second chapter, entitled "The Mouse in the Milk." Grandma Dowdel's mailbox is "blown to smithereens" by a cherry bomb. It had been a...

The answer is no, Grandma Dowdel doesn't own a rowboat. In A One-Woman Crime Wave, Grandma Dowdel takes Joey and Mary Alice to Salt Creek, where the Piatt County Rod and Gun Club has some property....

In the section of A Long Way from Chicago titled "The Day of Judgement," the joke is on Grandma Dowdel, because if she had not resorted to such a desperate measure as cheating at the county fair,...

When Shotgun is buried, a layer of gauze is attached to the outside of the open lid down the front of the coffin to provide a veil. He had not been very fresh when his body was discovered. A...

From McDowell's narration, we realize that Mary Alice is a strong and charismatic young lady. Although she is only seven years old at the time, her character is displayed as a person with an...

Grandma Dowdel went to all the trouble for Shotgun's wake and funeral presumably for two reasons. First, she resented the intrusion of outsiders into town affairs, and the reporter's seemingly...

In A Long Way from Chicago, Rupert Pennypacker is supposedly the "best home-baker in the state of Illinois." Along with Grandma Dowdel, Rupert enters a gooseberry pie for the Fruit Pies and...

Since this is a book for young adults, intended to hold their interest, each chapter is episodic. That is to say, within each chapter, which represents the children's visits to their grandma's...

A Long Way from Chicago chronicles the adventures of two siblings and their Grandma Dowdel. Joey and Mary Alice, the city kids, are not pleased to spend their summers in Grandma's small town. They...

The term Centennial indicates a hundred, so it would make sense that the Centennial Celebration is a celebration to commemorate a hundred years. The billboard announcing the event says, "Welcome...

In the story, Grandma Dowdel gets away with lying by using her age and life experience to her advantage. Throughout the book, Grandma often uses white lies to maneuver her way around difficulties....

Grandma catches catfish with the cheese. Grandma catches the catfish in traps, which are actually illegal in Illinois. Nonetheless, she has a series of traps set at various places along Salt...

Grandma claims that the ghost of the brakeman still haunts the scene of his death years after his demise. According to Grandma, the brakeman died in 1871 when a train full of firefighters collided...

In chapter 3, titled "A One-Woman Crime Wave--1931," of Richard Peck's novel A Long Way from Chicago, Grandma Dowdel puts some awful-smelling cheese into a gunnysack, cheese that "smelled bad...

Aunt Mae Griswold answers Grandma's questions with the wrong answers because she is likely hard of hearing. We get an idea of her advanced age when Grandma Dowdel seeks out Aunt Mae and her...

After numerous visits to her grandmother's rural southern Illinois home, Mary Alice becomes conspiratorial in her relationship with members of the local community. When Mary Alice and her brother...

Grandma Dowdel's small town is getting ready to celebrate its centenary, or hundredth anniversary. As one can imagine, this is quite a big deal, and lots of people are excited about such an...

Chapter 1: Shotgun Cheatham's Last Night Above Ground. In the book, the narrator, Joey Dowdel, tells stories about his childhood, summer adventures at his grandmother's. In the summer of 1929, Joey...

In the book, the women are upset that President Roosevelt's wife is plain-looking and that he is related to his wife (Eleanor is the president's fifth cousin). One summer's day, Joey and Mary Alice...

Several examples of onomatopoeia can be found in the novel, A Long Way from Chicago, by Richard Peck. An onomatopoeia is when a word sounds like what it is. For example, on page 7, in the...

The Great Depression might have influenced the lives of the characters in a number of ways. One way is in the living conditions of the people in the little Illinois town where Grandma Dowdel lives....

Joey thinks Shotgun Cheatham's name is too provocative to inspire anonymity. Therefore, his death doesn't go unnoticed because of it. The newspapers hadn't initially wanted to publish an obituary...

You're thinking of a corn crib. A cob house is an ancient form of dwelling made of clay, sand, and straw. I've pasted below some links to web sites where you can see pictures and read more about...

“The Phantom Brakeman—1933,” chapter 5 of A Long Way from Chicago, has many of the same main characters as the rest of the novel. The protagonists are Joe and Mary Alice Dowdel, who are spending...

Grandma says that sixteen-year old Ernie Cowgill is still in the fourth grade. Grandma has a propensity to exaggerate, so whether the hapless Ernie Cowgill is really still in the fourth grade or...

Joey and Mary Alice found Grandma Dowdel's wedding dress and Grandpa Dowdel's wedding suit, a stovepipe hat, and an old, tattered quilt. They also find old valentines that Grandma and Grandpa...

Aunt Mae Griswold answers Grandma's questions incorrectly because she has difficulties hearing!Although her exact age is not given, Aunt Mae is the wife of Uncle Grady Griswold, who is a hundred...

Good question! I think there are a number of possibilities. Grandma Dowdel commands respect. She also intrigues people. When the body is laid out in the front room, people can't help but be curious...

In A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck siblings Joey and Mary Alice take the Wabash Railroad Crack Blue Bird train to visit their grandmother, the very eccentric Grandma Dowdel, in the country...

The cover of Richard Peck's novel A Long Way From Chicago shows a boy with a man in plane and an older woman holding the hand of a young girl under the flying plane. One can easily assume that the...

In the novel A Long Way From Chicago, Richard Peck chronicles seven summers (between 1929 and 1942) that Chicago kids Joey and his sister Mary Alice spend with their grandmother in rural Illinois....

Grandma apparently does agree that two wrongs can make a right. Throughout the book she has no problem lying, cheating, and even blackmailing people to get what she wants. However, since her...

The Coffee Pot Café is a place where local people come to hang out and engage in gossip. Grandma Dowdel, however, isn't one of them. She likes to keep herself to herself, which is all but...

In the novel "A Long Way from Chicago," Joey and Mary Alice make the train trip to a small town every summer, in August, for seven years, for a week's visit with Grandma Dowdel. The Depression era...