A Season of Gifts

Grandma Dowdel is back! She's up to her old tricks of bestowing her "gifts" upon the unsuspecting, this time her new neighbors, a young minister and his family. Peck's story portrays life in a small American town in 1958. Ron McLarty's pacing, cadence, and tone fit the setting and characters perfectly. McLarty saves the best for Grandma Dowdel. His rich, gravelly, no-nonsense vocalization carries her all-knowing sagacity and wry sense of humor. Once again, we fear not for our young protagonist or his family because Grandma Dowdel is there. McLarty knows we are relying on Grandma Dowdel to work her quiet magic, and his delivery reassures us that she will. Peck has treated readers to another literary gift, and McLarty reads it with aplomb. J.K.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from July 13, 2009
The type of down-home humor and vibrant characterizations Peck fans have come to adore re-emerge in full as Peck resurrects Mrs. Dowdel, the irrepressible, self-sufficient grandmother featured in A Year Down Yonder
and A Long Way from Chicago
. Set in 1958, his new novel is told from the point of view of 12-year-old Bob Barnhart, Mrs. Dowdel's new neighbor, who is distraught about having to move from Terre Haute to a “podunk” town, where his Methodist minister father has been called to shepherd a meager sprinkling of parishioners. Mrs. Dowdel is a source of entertainment, and some fear, for Bob and his sisters (“she could be amazingly light on her big pins. We'd already seen her take a broom and swat a Fuller Brush man off her porch”). But more important, she proves useful in outsmarting bullies and attracting new members to Mr. Barnhart's fold. Not all of Grandma Dowdel's gifts to the Barnharts (and in some cases the entire community) are as tangible as the windows she donates to the church, but her actions exude as much warmth and wisdom as they do hilarity. Ages 10–up.