Share for friends:

Read Where I'd Like To Be (2004)

Where I'd Like To Be (2004)

Online Book

Genre
Rating
3.7 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
0689870671 (ISBN13: 9780689870675)
Language
English
Publisher
atheneum books for young readers

Where I'd Like To Be (2004) - Plot & Excerpts

Where I'd Like To Be is about a shy and sweet little girl named Maddie. Maddie's Granny ensures her that she is special because as a baby a ghost saved her life. Sadly though Maddie has been shuffled in an out of foster homes her entire life and now has been placed into an orphanage, where it is hard to feel special, loved or wanted by anyone. Maddie longs to feel loved and to have a family to call her own. With the help of a new friend named Murphy Maddie grows throughout the book and ultimately gains a nontraditional family and love. I thought this book as good but also very sad. The books overall theme is friendship but also overcoming abandonment and issues with foster care. The book gave me insight as a teacher on why children tend to act out in school when they are in the foster care system. I enjoyed that the book dealt with such a serious issue but gave you her perspective and the reader could easily interact with the main character.This would be a good book to use as an independent read, for classroom discussions on diversity and different family dynamics and throughout lesson plans. I would recommend using this book as an independent read instead of a read aloud book because the length and the touchy subject matter. I would recommend this book to children that have dealt with foster care, adoption and the over ally lonely students.You could use this book to discuss diversity such as family dynamic and help students understand foster families. The students could also reflect in journals on how they felt about the book and why they liked or didn't like the book.

Torwards the end of the book Maddie is at play rehearsal and a young woman arrives and sits in the back row. Maddie, thinking this is a talent scout, steps up her game at JM practice and really stands out in the crowd. Once she gets back to the Home it turns out that this lady, Penny Korda, is interested in adopting and wanted to get to know Maddie better. After thinking about the situation with Penny, Maddie wanted to start another book. After she got the supplies she went to the fort to start a book and the gang was already there making a book of their own. At the very end of the book is when Maddie realized that she doesn't need a blood-related family, she already had a family right in front of her.

What do You think about Where I'd Like To Be (2004)?

What would you think if you were told that a ghost saved your life when you were an infant? Well, that's what Maddie's Granny Lane claims. Now 12, Maddie is living at the East Tennessee Children's Home, so she tries to feel as if she's special. It's difficult, however, when you have been sent to different foster homes your whole life. She wants a home so badly that she makes a "book of houses," in which she gathers pictures of houses --- houses where she longs to live someday. One day, a new girl named Murphy comes to live at the East Tennessee Children's Home. Her mind is filled with magical tales about exotic travels, being able to fly, and boys who recite poetry to horses. Maddie they become really good friends. Then one day, while Ricky Ray, Maddie's friend, is visiting her, Maddie decides to show Murphy her precious scrapbook. Murphy eventually comes up with an idea to build a fort.
—Ayanna

I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. As I was reading it, I felt like I knew what was going on in the story, but it still took me several days to read it because it was so predictable. Through the whole thing, I felt like I knew what was going to happen. That's not saying that I don't think it's a good story, because it is. I think any child in foster care or who has been adopted can easily relate to this story. However, I also feel like it puts a blanket over the many things that happen in the foster care system, just based on other books I have read. Overall, though, I think it is a good book for younger readers just to introduce the subject to them so they can realize what it is like to be in foster care, or relate to the characters if they themselves have been in foster care.
—Amber

I really liked this novel about kids in a group foster care home, longing for permanent and loving homes. Each character has a backstory, and each of those is equally poignant. That includes the kids whom they meet at school, whose lives they envy, but perhaps too quickly.Maddie's scrapbooks are both blessing and curse, as she chronicles the types of houses she likes, and as other kids use them to weave magical tales involving their absent parents. It is the simple fort they build that binds them together. Truth will out in this story, and its acceptance.A good read.
—Cornmaven

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Read books by author Frances O'Roark Dowell

Read books in category Horror