Where I Live

by Eileen Spinelli

Book 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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803731221
• ISBN13: 9780803731226
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Dial Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 7 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 5

Customer Reviews

Review from Books That Heal Kids

I love this book. Let me say it again - I Love This Book! Times have been tough lately. People are struggling. The ecomony is down. Unemployment rates are up and many of our familes find themselves thrust out of their homes as a result. As a school counselor I observe A LOT of our students have attended different schools and have had to make many moves to new homes. These are the kids who really need us to reach out to them and be compassionate and helpful while they adjust to a new home and school. I really had no idea what sort of reaction I would get from students when I read Where I Live. My hope was it would give students in these hard and often emotionally difficult situations a voice. It's done that and so much more. After I read it to a second grade class, many of them were clamoring around me desperately trying to tell me their story of moving. Some kids moved from another state, some moved from across town, some even moved from another country, and some kids haven't moved at all, but it allowed them to gain a sensitivity towards the other children who have moved. I felt like this book must have been a 'labor of love' for Eileen Spinelli. Because she has given children a beautiful little story written wonderfully in the form of poetry full of precious characters like Twink and Rose. I especially cared for Mrs. Clifford, Diana's teacher, who validated her feelings when she had to move. Sometimes when I read a book, I might have a few kids not paying attention. Not with this read, even the squirliest of the squirelly had their eyes and ears 100% on me. I know Where I Live has done a lot of healing in my school. There are not enough books out there helping kids with a big life transition like moving. So I was grateful for this new find and will continue to use it as a tool to help students experiencing or facing a move.

It was awesome.

For my book report, I thought I would write a review of one of my favorite books. 'Where I Live' was about a girl named Diana who moves to a new house because her dad lost his job. This book was written as free verse poems. The book has drawings that illustrate the poems. She began writing because she was very sad since she had to leave her friend Rose. She wrote a poem about everything she did and everywhere she went. I liked it because I knew how she felt, I moved to a new school and had to leave my friends. I highly reccomend it. -JNV

Gotsta get me that purple hat

Once a children's book author wins the Newbery Medal, their title receives a certain amount of attention, praise, and (in some instances) controversy. We know that this means that future books under that author's name, while not guaranteed to be bestsellers, will still be purchased by a certain segment of the population based on name-recognition alone. How fare the illustrators of Newbery winning books then? In the last 20 years there have only been four medal winners with illustrations (not counting the photographs found in Lincoln: A Photobiography). Some, like Peter Sis, have gone on to fame and fortune. Others, like Eric Beddows, have mostly stayed under the radar. So when I saw that Eileen Spinelli's newest verse novel, "Where I Live", was being illustrated by The Higher Power of Lucky's own Matt Phelan, I didn't know how it would potentially affect book sales. The story in and of itself is a simple one that tries for a pure, straightforward emotional response from its readers. With this in mind, Phelan's illustrations can only cast Spinelli's work in the best possible light. If not a match made in heaven, at the very least what we can define here is a match made under the auspices of particularly beneficent stars. Right from the start, you know that Diana is living a pretty nice life. She loves her house, with the family of birds living in the wreath hanging from her front door. She loves her best friend Rose and her floppy purple hat. She loves how well she does in school in terms of poetry and she enjoys learning about the stars. Imagine how devastated she feels, then, when it suddenly becomes clear that the family needs to up and move in with Diana's Grandpa Joe in his house that is six whole hours away. Author Eileen Spinelli delicately tell the story of one girl's hurt and confusion. She loves her Grandpa, but how can that make up for moving away from her best friend in the entire world? In the end, Diana finds that it isn't about making your new life exactly like your old but creating a space for yourself in your new surroundings that leads to happiness. I hadn't read any Eileen Spinelli books prior to seeing this one (which, considering how prolific she is, strikes me as a bit odd). Then I found that some of the choices she made as an author caught my attention and caused me take a closer notice of this title. I found it interesting how long it took Spinelli to get to Diana's actual move. The book stands at a slim 112 pages (give or take a few) so it's funny that it's not until 45 or so that our heroine gets the big news. It works in the end, but I wouldn't call it a natural choice. The writing itself is very simple. Spinelli does little things with her words that might go unnoticed, but add to the overall reading experience when you examine them. At one point near the end we read, "When Mom and I go back `home' Twink is waiting at the door." "Home" in parentheses is a clever little touch. "Where I Live" is a good title to hand to