Analysis Of A Year Down Yonder By Richard Peck

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A Year Down Yonder, written by Richard Peck, is the second book in a three book series. It was published in 2000 by Scholastic Inc. In 2001, it won the Newbery Medal. The book was intended for a younger audience to show the hardships of the Great Depression with humor. The authors goal in writing the book was to show the many struggles of people during the depression in the country through a girl from the city. The author intended to show how small town life was like compared to life in the city. The story takes place in 1937 during the Roosevelt recession. A 15-year-old girl named Mary Alice is sent to live a year with her grandmother while her mother and father live in Chicago. Her parents couldn’t afford to keep and feed her or her brother. Her new life in the country is much different than her old life in the big city. She learns many things about how the people there got by with the little they had. During her time there she learns how make the best of with what she had. …show more content…

Several of the new programs created by Roosevelt were shown. A couple examples were her brother who left to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps and a man working for the Works Progress Administration who painted murals in the post office. It also showed how hard it was to live in the country during this time. Many things were hard to come by and were rare. Neither side of Roosevelt’s New Deal is favored by the the author. Throughout the story, he expresses both good things and bad things about it, never taking a side. Peck never provided sources on his information to write the story but I believe the details to be

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