* A Year Down Yonder    Richard Peck


This is realistic fiction.  This is a fantastic story about a young girl during the depression in chicago.  She is sent to live with her grandmother in the south because her family can not afford to keep her and are forced to move into a small one bedroom apartment.  The young woman moves in with her very unique grandmothe, and has to become accustomed to life in a small town in the south.  She begins school and does not have very nice clothes, and her clothes are different because she is from a big city, not like the others in her class.  She begins a crush on this boy, who a very popular girl has a crush on too.  She invites him over to help her with her math and duriing his visit a snake falls from the attic and scares the daylights out of him and he takes off home.  She thinks she is never going to see him again and will die from embaressment.  Soon after he is going to go away to college and he comes calling on her again and asks if she will wait for him.  She goes back to Chicago to be with her family, and during the summer she goes back to her grandmothers farm to marry that boy and start her life in that same little town she dreaded.    This is such a great story of finding something great during a time of duress.  This is a great read for young adults who are independent readers and enjoy a love story.  5th grade up through 12th grade could all enjoy this story equally, while getting different things out of it.