Book Description
for Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli and Matt Phelan
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
“This is where I live— / in the yellow house / with the white shutters.” For Diana, the idea of “home” is defined by her immediate world of comfort and familiarity. But when Diana’s dad loses his job, her family has to move all the way across Pennsylvania to live with her grandfather, leaving her beloved house, and her beloved best friend, far away. Even surrounded by her loving and supportive family, Diana finds nothing is the same. Eileen Spinelli takes a tender, honest look at displacement in this novel-in-poems written in aspiring poet Diana’s first-person voice. E-mailing her best friend helps, so does the poetry workshop Diana is able to attend when she goes back “home.” But what matters most is time to embrace a new idea of where home is, and what it can be. Matt Phelan’s lyrical illustrations are a wonderful grace note to Spinelli’s quitely compelling story. (Ages 8–10)
CCBC Choices 2008. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2008. Used with permission.