[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: A SEASON OF GIFTS

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: A SEASON OF GIFTS by Richard  Peck, Dial, September 2009, 
176p., ISBN: 978-0-8037-3082-3
 
"Then the privy door banged open.
"Filling the doorway and then some was Mrs. Dowdel.  A  copy of the Farm 
Journal and three corncobs were in one of her  fists.  I hadn't seen her up 
close.  I'd never wanted to be anywhere  near this close to her.  Her specs 
crept to the end of her nose.  We  were nose to nose.
"She didn't welcome surprises, and I came as one.  All  she'd wanted to do 
was use her privy, and here I was barring her way, naked a  jaybird in my 
own personal web."
 
Tied up tight in Grandma Dowdel's privy is eleven-year-old Bob  Barnhart.  
Bob is a combination of preacher's son, new kid  in town, and walking target 
for the town bullies.  (I immediately surmised  -- correctly -- that there 
is a new crop of Burdicks  and a son of Augie Fluke's amongst this 
generation's crew of  ruffians.)  
 
Bob's dad has gained the first pulpit "all his own,"  and he and Bob's mom 
have moved Bob and his two sisters into the  next-to-last house on the 
street -- the street on which the last house is still  occupied -- here in 1958 
-- by Grandma Dowdel.  
 
 
"'But as the saying goes, if you can't get justice,' Mrs.  Dowdel remarked, 
'get even.'"

 
After taking a taste of A SEASON OF GIFTS to  be reassured that it was the 
real deal, I decided that there was time  enough to permit the luxury of 
going back and rereading A LONG WAY FROM  CHICAGO and A YEAR DOWN YONDER before 
digging in and savoring this  next chapter in the world of Grandma Dowdel.  
It's coming up  on a decade since I'd read the stories told by her 
grandchildren Joey  and Mary Alice, and those first two award-winning books are, 
still and  again, an absolute pleasure and a joy to read.
 
"'Hoo-boy,' Ruth Ann whispered.  'That's the  oldest-looking woman I ever 
saw.'
"Mrs. Dowdel nodded.  'She was only about three years  behind me in 
school.'"
 
A quarter-century after we last laid eyes on her, Grandma  Dowdel is no 
less of a force to reckon with -- particularly if you are a  troublemaker, 
cheapskate, or a fraud.
 
To some extent, A SEASON OF GIFTS is reminiscent of one  of those specials 
they put together a decade or  so after some long-running and beloved 
television series finally goes  off the air.  This is somewhat ironic because if 
there is a  subtle-but-important issue hinted at in this book, it is the 
isolating  effect that the dawning age of television is already beginning to  
have upon many families in Grandma Dowdel's rural community.  
 
Nevertheless, so many of the characters and so much of  the mischief that 
we came to know and love -- thanks to LONG WAY and YEAR DOWN  YONDER -- are 
still alive and well in 1958.  To experience them  all once again is 
certainly a reason to rejoice.  
 
 
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks 
_http://www.librarything.com/catalog/richiespicks_ 
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks) 
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
Moderator,  _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/) 
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) 





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