Customer Reviews

Where I'd Like to Be (Aladdin Fiction)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What if when you were a baby, a ghost saved your life? Well, according to Granny Lane, that's what happened to 11 year old Maddie. She longs for a family and a place to call home and feels that it's hopeless. After all, who adopts an 11 year old? But maybe it wasn't as hopeless as she thought.

Maddie may seem a normal kid to you, she goes to school, has great friends, is in after-school activities, but then you go to her home. She has shared a room with people who come and go as often, it seems, as the seasons. Maddie lives at the East Tennessee Children's Home. She wants a home so badly she has a "book of houses" and a "book of people." Throughout the book she and her friends find that they are all a family, a strange one, but a family none the less.

Where I'd Like To Be, is a book that all people should read for a heart warming tale. I think what I liked best is that you can almost feel each character's emotions as they change. I think anyone who likes a story that makes you glad for what you've got, should read this book.

Great book, especially for young girls in their search for self. This book surely must be based, at least in part, on some observations from East Tennessee Christian Home in Elizabethton, Tennessee because the author has cited several times East Tennessee Children's Home (where the novel is set), as well as Allen Avenue (the actual location of The Home), and Elizabethton, Tennessee (the city in which the novel is set). I certainly encourage young girls to read the book, as well as their parents. I think it will lead to more understanding on both sides.

Where I'd Like To Be is a great book by Frances O'Roark Dowell. It is about a girl named Maddie who lives in an orphange and keeps to herself. She hardly tells anyone her secrets especially about her scrapbook of dreams. Her scrapbook contains magazine clippings of things she wishes she had like a big house, dogs,etc. One day her scrapbook is revealed.One of the boys at the orphange becomes friends with Maddie. Eventually she trusts him enough to tell him about the scrapbook and dreams. This is a heart-warming book that you should read. To find out what happens to Maddie read this book.

My Book Review

Where I'd like to be

By Frances O' Roark Dowell

"Maddie was saved by a ghost," says Maddies grandmother. When Maddie was younger she almost suffocated but then there was a whisper in her Grandmothers ear that caused her to find Maddie in her crib wrapped up in blankets and she couldn't breathe. Maddies Grandmother turned around to thank the man that whispered in her ear but there was nothing there but Maddies empty crib and a very sick baby in her arms.

When Maddie turned 7 her Grandmother died. Maddie has been all over the country at orphanages and foster homes. When she turned 12 she moved to the east side tenseness children's home. After about a week of living in the home another girl named Murphy moved in she was a little bit spoiled but she made Maddies life more interesting. Maddie also has a best friend named Ricky Ray. Although he is only 6 he is very fun and he is interested in the same things as Maddie.

They shared a room and there beds were next to each other's. They had some things in common and enjoyed things they didn't. They both brought special possessions from home Maddie got jealous of what Murphy had so she took out the most special thing to her...soon after she showed her she fell in love with it instantly which grew there relationship closer.

Maddie strived for a place to call home with loving friends and family that cared about her and help her get rid of her past. She even made a "book of houses" in which she would like to live in, a "book of people" in which she admired and a "book of animals" that she loved. Murphy grew closer to Maddie and they became friends. But is Murphy more like a sister or a friend? Could maddies dream come true? Could Maddie have found family? You will have to read the book to find out!

By,

Jess

When I bought this book at my school bookfair I just could`nt

put it down! In fact soon I was reading this book EVERYWHERE

I gave this book 5 stars because it showed a life of a foster

child and what it felt like.Plus I am now making a scrapbook

of my own with magazeen clippings! Great book for 8-13 year

olds.

I must say that I was taken aback by the force of this novel. I am an instructor of children with special needs, specifically youth with behavioral and emotional disorders. I am making this book required reading for my troubled students! It tackles tough subject matter in a way that is optimistic and wistful. I enjoyed the setting, and especially the author's use of language, both dialect and twists of phrase. Dowell reminds me of a poet I knew growing up in Central Texas. She knows the South, and her fondness for it shows up in her work. She is clever, and hopeful. This book may not live up the high standard Dowell set in her debut novel, "Dovey Coe," which was compared to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," but it is an excellent read, nonetheless. I look forward to reading more from this young writer (young in spirit, if not in age!).

Meet twelve-year-old Maddie, who has spent years being shuffled from one foster home to another. Maddie is always looking for a real home life and real friends; so when new girl Murphy shows up with adventure stories and a zest for life, she hopes she's made a new friend who will join her search for stability. The character of Maddie comes to life and is compelling in this inviting story.

One of those wonderful books that make you feel the same way as the character. You suffer when they do and you have joy as they live. Though slow to start, it picks up speed and finishes at the max velocity without letting you slow down. Great way to finish with just enough to satisfy-- no more, no less.

I am so glad I feel welcomed in my family. I am glad my mom and brother did not die. Unfortunately the little girl in Where I'd Like To Be lost both of her parents, her grandma couldn't take care of her because she got sick, so her aunt sent her off to foster care, but I still love this book.

My younger sister is 7 years old. When she started reading the book,outloud, I was interested. The book was a little bit hard for her,but she loved it. Later, I read it. It meant a lot to me and now it is one of me and my sister's favorite books.