Where I Live

by Eileen Spinelli, Matt Phelan (Illustrator)

Overview

Diana loves where she lives. She loves the astronomy charts on her walls and the fact that she can wave to her best friend, Rose, from her very own window. And best of all, a wren has recently made its home right by her front door! When her family is forced to move, Diana wonders if she'll ever find that same grounded and happy feeling again.

This gentle and ultimately redeeming story in poems is about those secure and fulfilling friendships that happen naturally and easily when you live right next door, and the struggles of losing the comfort of a familiar place. Matt Phelan's warm and expressive illustrations perfectly complement Eileen Spinelli's tenderhearted and unique tale that reminds us that sometimes a little uprooting and change is necessary for growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101078266
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	06/21/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Matt Phelan lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

Diana is perfectly happy in her yellow house with the white shutters. She and her sister Twink enjoy the hominess of their secure family, and Diana enjoys spending time with her best friend, Rose. Diana and Twink are so endearing that when these sensitive girls discover that a small wren has built a nest in the wreath on their front door, they make a sign that invites visitors to use a side door so that mother and babies will not be disturbed. Then, everything changes. Diana's father loses his job and a lack of money haunts the household. When her mother goes to visit Grandpa, the adults decide to move the family six hours away to be with Grandpa Joe. Diana is devastated at the news. The story is told in narrative blank verse from Diana's perspective and is illustrated with the wistful strokes of pen and ink, reminiscent of child art. No doubt many in the reading or listening audience will relate to Diana's dilemma and be comforted by the surprising yet believable happy ending. Highly recommended for homes, classrooms, and libraries, this is a multifaceted story of friendship, talent, individuality, and resilience, which offers a healing balm for often-uprooted readers in a frequently shifting and mobile society.

Children's Literature - Janice DeLong

Gr 1-4
Precocious Diana loves astronomy, poetry, and sleepovers with her best friend, Rose. She's content with the way things are: her sun poem won the school contest, she is painting her room midnight blue to go with her star charts, and a bird family has made a nest in a wreath on the front door of her house. She even enjoys her little sister, Twink, who can be pesky at times, gets itchy on long car rides, and manages to get covered in midnight blue paint. Then, Diana gets bad news: her dad has lost his job, and they're moving six hours away to live with Grandpa Joe. She must say goodbye to her old home and to her best friend. Spinelli crafts a reassuring and engaging story in verse, and young readers facing similar circumstances will find their experiences and emotions echoed in Diana's thoughtful musings. The girl finds great solace in her poetry journal and is able to work through her emotions in a creative way. Phelan's charming pencil drawings are a perfect complement to this heartfelt tale.
—Marilyn TaniguchiCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

First-person free-verse poems describe the emotional journey made by one little girl when her family is forced to move. Diana is perfectly happy where she lives: Her house is yellow with white shutters, has a maple tree she planted in the front yard and a midnight-blue bedroom painted by Diana and her best friend Rose. But when her father loses his job, the family must move across the state to Grandpa Joe's, leaving behind Rose, the maple tree and the poetry workshop she'd competed for a spot in. Spinelli employs the shortest of lines in her brief poems, Diana's voice ingenuously describing the simple, perfect life of a middle-grader interested in astronomy and poetry, and whose family and friends provide all she needs. So well does she execute her exposition, however, that Diana's eventual adjustment to her new home, aided by her poetry and her new friend Sam, makes for a somewhat abrupt, if satisfying resolution. Phelan's winning spot illustrations match the poems in brevity and sensitivity, ably complementing the text. All in all, a pleasing portrait of the healing that can follow an all-too-common childhood trauma. (Fiction/poetry. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews