Today you will meet the author of A Year Down Yonder and think a little bit about the book and what he has to say. Turn in all of your answers to your language arts teacher via Google Docs. All questions and assignments need to be complete prior to submitting.
Richard Peck
Part I:
Richard Peck
Part I:
1. Where did Richard Peck grow up?
2. He says his first job was "ghost-writing" sermons. Look up the term ghost-writing and explain what it is. 3. What two novels were set in the farm town where his dad grew up? 4. Where does Richard Peck currently live? Why do you think he refers to it as "as third world sort of island?" |
Part II:
Read this article written by Richard Peck about his grandmother and answer the questions that follow.
COMMENTARY BY RICHARD PECK
Grandma Dowdel and I
Once in a while in a long writing career, one character rises off the page and takes on special life. So it happened with Grandma Dowdel in A Long Way from Chicago and again in A Year Down Yonder. Meant to be larger than life, she became all too lifelike. The letters came in at once: “Was she YOUR grandmother”, they ask? Did my own grandmother fire off both barrels of a shotgun in her own front room? Did she pour warm glue on the head of a hapless Halloweener? Did she spike the punch at a DAR tea? Well, no. Writers aren’t given much credit for creativity.
Yet writing is the quest for roots, and I draw on my earliest memories of visiting my grandmother in a little town cut by the tracks of the Wabash Railroad. It was, in fact, Cerro Gordo, Illinois. I use that town in my stories, though I never name it, wanting readers to think of small towns they know.
The house in the stories is certainly my grandma’s, with the snowball bushes crowding the bay window and the fly strip heavy with corpses hanging down over the oilcloth kitchen table, and the path back to the privy.
I even borrow my grandmother’s physical presence. My grandmother was six feet tall with a fine crown of thick white hair, and she wore aprons the size of Alaska. But she wasn’t Grandma Dowdel. When you’re a writer, you can give yourself the grandma you wished you had.
Perhaps she’s popular with readers because she isn’t an old lady at all. Maybe she’s a teenager in disguise. After all, she believes the rules are for other people. She always wants her own way. And her best friend and worst enemy is the same person [Mrs. Wilcox]. Sounds like adolescence to me, and even more like puberty.
But whoever she is, she’s an individual. Young readers need stories of rugged individualism because most of them live in a world completely ruled by peer-group conformity.
Answer these questions:
5. When Peck says "Writing is the quest for roots," what do you think that means? (Hint: Look up vocabulary you don't know.)
6. What town is Peck's grandmother from? Why does he say he doesn't name it? How does keeping the town name anonymous influence you as a reader?
7. Why does Peck say Grandma Dowdel is popular with readers? Why do YOU think she is popular?
Part III:
Watch these book trailers about three of Richard Peck's books.
A Long Way from Chicago
Fair Weather
A Season of Gifts
8. What common theme(s) do you see in these three books? Why do you think Peck continues to write about these themes?
Part IV:
Joey and Mary Alice visit Grandma Dowdel each summer from 1929 to 1935. Look at this timeline of world events that occurred during this time span.
9. What is the biggest world event going on at this time? How do you think these events affect life in Grandma Dowdel’s small Illinois town?
EXTRA CREDIT:
A reporter from the “big city” of Peoria comes to Grandma Dowdel’s house to cover the death of Shotgun Cheatham. He streaks out of the house when Grandma fires a shotgun at the coffin. Write a newspaper story that describes this entire incident. Give the story an appropriate headline.
Read this article written by Richard Peck about his grandmother and answer the questions that follow.
COMMENTARY BY RICHARD PECK
Grandma Dowdel and I
Once in a while in a long writing career, one character rises off the page and takes on special life. So it happened with Grandma Dowdel in A Long Way from Chicago and again in A Year Down Yonder. Meant to be larger than life, she became all too lifelike. The letters came in at once: “Was she YOUR grandmother”, they ask? Did my own grandmother fire off both barrels of a shotgun in her own front room? Did she pour warm glue on the head of a hapless Halloweener? Did she spike the punch at a DAR tea? Well, no. Writers aren’t given much credit for creativity.
Yet writing is the quest for roots, and I draw on my earliest memories of visiting my grandmother in a little town cut by the tracks of the Wabash Railroad. It was, in fact, Cerro Gordo, Illinois. I use that town in my stories, though I never name it, wanting readers to think of small towns they know.
The house in the stories is certainly my grandma’s, with the snowball bushes crowding the bay window and the fly strip heavy with corpses hanging down over the oilcloth kitchen table, and the path back to the privy.
I even borrow my grandmother’s physical presence. My grandmother was six feet tall with a fine crown of thick white hair, and she wore aprons the size of Alaska. But she wasn’t Grandma Dowdel. When you’re a writer, you can give yourself the grandma you wished you had.
Perhaps she’s popular with readers because she isn’t an old lady at all. Maybe she’s a teenager in disguise. After all, she believes the rules are for other people. She always wants her own way. And her best friend and worst enemy is the same person [Mrs. Wilcox]. Sounds like adolescence to me, and even more like puberty.
But whoever she is, she’s an individual. Young readers need stories of rugged individualism because most of them live in a world completely ruled by peer-group conformity.
Answer these questions:
5. When Peck says "Writing is the quest for roots," what do you think that means? (Hint: Look up vocabulary you don't know.)
6. What town is Peck's grandmother from? Why does he say he doesn't name it? How does keeping the town name anonymous influence you as a reader?
7. Why does Peck say Grandma Dowdel is popular with readers? Why do YOU think she is popular?
Part III:
Watch these book trailers about three of Richard Peck's books.
A Long Way from Chicago
Fair Weather
A Season of Gifts
8. What common theme(s) do you see in these three books? Why do you think Peck continues to write about these themes?
Part IV:
Joey and Mary Alice visit Grandma Dowdel each summer from 1929 to 1935. Look at this timeline of world events that occurred during this time span.
9. What is the biggest world event going on at this time? How do you think these events affect life in Grandma Dowdel’s small Illinois town?
EXTRA CREDIT:
A reporter from the “big city” of Peoria comes to Grandma Dowdel’s house to cover the death of Shotgun Cheatham. He streaks out of the house when Grandma fires a shotgun at the coffin. Write a newspaper story that describes this entire incident. Give the story an appropriate headline.