A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

This book takes place twenty or twenty-five years after A Long Way from Chicago. A new family has moved in next door to Grandma Dowdel. She doesn't seem to be paying them much attention, but as the book goes on you see her taking them under her wing in her usual fashion.

This book has a great lesson. The end of the book is at Christmas time, and the boy in the story tells his dad that Grandma Dowdel doesn't have much to give in the way of gifts. His dad corrects him by pointing out that she spent the entire year giving. It's a good one to read with your children at this time of year.