A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Richard Peck brings back his most unforgettable character in this sweet, funny story set in 1958 in rural Illinois. Grandma Dowdel is a strong, independent woman who keeps to herself, but still knows everything about everyone in town. She slyly teaches life’s lessons to old and young alike, with an approach that is as original as her appearance. Grandma Dowdel’s gifts of her garden, her time, and her unique way of solving problems are a blessing to the new family next door. This book should find an audience in a classroom, or through family sharing. I recommend it for kids in upper elementary and middle school.

This addition to Peck’s previous books about Grandma Dowdel (A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder) adds a new twist to this old-fashioned setting. New neighbors move in next to Mrs. Dowdel and they are as mystified and intrigued with her as her grandchildren were in the previous books. In this story we meet Bob, a hapless hero with three strikes against him. Not only is he the new kid in town, but he is a “preacher’s kid” and he has two sisters to contend with. Bob’s father is a new preacher with an opportunity to build a church in the small community, and the family has many obstacles to overcome.

Bob is the target of the town bullies, his older sister Phyllis is pining for Elvis and trying to fit in with the high school crowd, and little sister Ruth Ann longs for a friend. Even though Mrs. Dowdel keeps to herself and isn’t overly friendly, she manages to give each member of the family the kind of gift they most need. Her anonymous gifts of fresh vegetables sustain their bodies, but she finds ways to instill confidence in them, which allows them to grow in spirit.

Mrs. Dowdel manages to give the town bully his just desserts through an act of seeming kindness, to devise a way to bring new members into the church with a funeral service for the spirit of a long-dead Indian princess, and to teach Ruth Ann secrets of how to survive in the world. We see all this unfold through Bob’s bemused eyes, but we feel his strength growing as well. As Ruth Ann would say, “Hoo boy.”

Jean Hatfield has experience as a children’s librarian, a school librarian, and a head librarian. She has served on the selection committee for major children’s book awards and is presently responsible for the selection of public library materials for youth – children and young adults - for the public library system in the largest city in Kansas, Wichita.

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