Where I'd Like to Be - Hardcover

Dowell, Frances O'Roark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689844204 ISBN 13: 9780689844201

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003

Synopsis

A ghost saved twelve-year-old Maddie's life when she was an infant, her Granny Lane claims, so Maddie must always remember that she is special. But it's hard to feel special when you've spent your life being shuttled from one foster home to another. And now that she's at the East Tennessee Children's Home, Maddie feels, well, less than ordinary. Six-year-old Ricky Ray, who came to the Home after his parents failed to come back from a party, thinks Maddie's the cat's meow. But what does a little boy like that know?
Maddie can't stop looking for a place to call home or for people who feel like home. She even makes a "book of houses," where she glues pictures of places in which she yearns to live. Then one day, a new girl, Murphy, shows up at the Home armed with tales about exotic travels, being able to fly, and boys who recite poetry to wild horses. Maddie is enchanted....Maybe, just maybe, she's found someone who feels like home and she lets her guard down. She shows Murphy her beloved scrapbook, never anticipating that this one gesture will challenge her very ideas of what home, and family, are all about.
With her astonishing ability to create characters who linger with you long after you turn the last page, Frances O'Roark Dowell explores the many definitions, both heartbreaking and awe-inspiring, of home and family.

About this title

Review:

* "A lovely, quietly bittersweet tale of friendship and family."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A celebration of friendship and of the healing powers of the imagination."--Publishers Weekly

"Unique and memorable."--School Library Journal

"A choice read aloud. Tough issues, difficult situations, engaging characters, and a tentative ending provide ample discussion possibilities."--Booklist

About the Author:

Frances O'Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I'd Like to Be; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Medal; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; the critically acclaimed The Second Life of Abigail Walker; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; and The Class. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0689844204
• ISBN 13: 9780689844201
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232