A Long Way from Chicago is a newberry honor book about a brother and sister who go to their Grandma's every summer. Joey and Mary Alice Dowdel are very young and every year after school, they go down to their Grandma Dowdel's house.
This book is mainly about each summer they come back and crazy things happen. Whenever they come back, there is another interesting event going on. The question is though, can Joey and Mary Alice handle their crazy grandma for very longer. Staying with their Grandma will not be easy.
One thing I really liked about the book was all the interesting stories. Like when Grandma Dowdel shot her shotgun at a coffin. Also when she lit a cherry bomb by a couple of dumb kids. My favorite was when they went fishing illegally. These were the things that kept me interested. Another thing I found interesting was how much money was worth. It was a nickel for a pop. Now a nickel won't buy anything except another nickel or five pennies. I really liked the unusual and unique vocab the author used. I found no usual words like cool or sweet. There were words like quivered and conniption. Words I never heard but now understand. There was really good dialogue. It helped me understand the exact situation and allow me to see the other peoples feelings. Not to mention how much dialogue there was. The only thing I never saw was a main plot line. Overall the book was really interesting and would definitely tell somebody to give it a try. I would recommend this book to people 12 and up. Any younger and it might be harder to understand. But if you want to try it, go ahead. It's a great book.