A long way from Chicago, by Richard Peck

It seems everyone has a family legend. For Mary Alice and Joey, who hail from Chicago, their family legend is born in yearly trips to visit larger-than-life Grandma Dowdel on her rural farm. The narrator, Joey, reveals hilarious stories about Grandma, including her connection to Abraham Lincoln’s top hat and her expert use of a twelve-gauge shotgun. Readers who plowed through Al Capone does my shirts will love Peck's A long way from Chicago.

Peck, R. (1998). A long way from Chicago. Dial Books for Young Readers: New York, NY. ISBN 0-8037-2290-7