The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout.

Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.” Though readers need not be familiar with the first offering to enjoy the charm of this one, there are some allusions that will be clearer if they are. There are occasional passages where details may be too nostalgic for current young readers, as when Maine muses that the young Michael Jackson “was asked to be James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and Sam Cooke all rolled into one.” Still, Maine’s loving exasperation with her brother and little cousin sparkle with life (evoking memories of Lois Lowry’s Anastasia and Sam Krupnik), and the wisdom of Maine’s parents and peers, richly woven with bits of African-American cultural history, feels true. Employing the same relaxed pace used in 2006’s Sweet Thang, Maine’s narrative voice is steeped in the social conscience that frames the novel’s 1970s setting.

Negotiations involving first love, a potential modeling career and a ne’er-do-well uncle prove challenging for 15-year-old Charmaine (Maine) in this gently humorous second installment about life in the Upshaw family.

Tutored by Allison Whittenberg