Here We All Are ANNOTATION
Children's author-illustrator Tomie De Paola describes his experiences at home and in school when he was a boy.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Tomie can't believe that anything could be more exciting than moving to a new house. Then he finds out that a new baby is coming. Will it be a sister? That's what Tomie hopes. While he is waiting for her to arrive, there is plenty to keep him busy, including tap dancing lessons and the tryouts for a play about Peter Rabbit. Once again, Tomie dePaola takes us back to his childhood and shares the funny personal memories that make us all wish we could grow up at 26 Fairmount Avenue too.
"Children will be tickled." (School Library Journal)
"Readers will find [Tomie's] buoyancy irresistible." (Kirkus Reviews)
Author Biography: Tomie dePaola also wrote 26 Fairmount Avenue, a Newbery Honor Book
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In a starred review PW wrote, "DePaola continues to share engaging childhood memories in this breezy follow-up to 26 Fairmount Avenue, his inaugural chapter book and a Newbery Honor title." Ages 7-10. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature - Marya Jansen-Gruber
For little Tomie, life is just about as exciting as it can get, or so he thinks. His family has just moved into their new house. He has never lived in a house before and the whole experience delights him. He loves being able to run up and down the stairs. He loves having all the space and having so many new things to look at. Then Tomie's mother gives him some news that adds to the excitement in the air. His mother is going to have a baby and he, Tomie, is going to be a big brother! More than anything Tomie hopes that he is going to have a little sister. He already has a brother and feels that one brother is quite enough. A sister would balance things out very nicely. Of course getting a little brother or sister is not easy and there are problems to overcome. Tomie discovers that he cannot always have things his way and it is a hard lesson to learn for a small boy. What is especially enjoyable about the stories in this little book is that they are personal and told from Tomie's point of view. It is very much as if we were there, as if we were watching what was happening through Tomie's eyes. We experience his days at school, and we get that first hint of what is to become Tomie's vocation in later life, his art. The author's meticulous attention to detail and remarkable memory for the "small" events in his childhood makes this chapter book a delight to read. We cannot help smiling when he tells us about the time he licked his bedroom furniture to see if it tasted like maple syrup after he heard his mother saying that the wood was "genuine maple." These are the kinds of things we would have done as children though we might not like to admit it. "Here We All Are" is the second book in aseries of four chapter books about Tomie DePaola's childhood. 2001, Penguin Putnam, Ages 7 to 9.
School Library Journal
Gr 1-3-Like an old friend sharing childhood experiences, dePaola recalls events that occurred soon after his family moved to their house on Fairmount Avenue in Connecticut circa 1940. He describes his main obsessions in kindergarten-the anticipated birth of his baby sister, art, and learning to tap dance. His parents, grandparents, his friend Jeannie, and even his art teacher, first introduced in 26 Fairmount Avenue (Putnam, 1999), all make return appearances here, with their personalities and stories expanded and placed more firmly in time. Children will be tickled to read about the time Tomie borrowed his mother's lipstick to make himself up like his favorite movie star, Mae West; or how he licked his bedpost when he learned that it was genuine maple. A black-and-white illustration or small decorative silhouette graces almost every page. Through descriptions and drawings, the author helps readers to understand such historical tidbits as a monitor-top refrigerator and Joe Palooka. This is a perfect step-up for children ready to move from beginning readers to chapter books. A wonderful choice for group or independent reading.-Darcy Schild, Schwegler Elementary School, Lawrence, KS Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Kirkus Reviews
Picking up his memoir where 26 Fairmount Avenue (1999), left off, dePaola presents a kindergartner's-eye view of his new house, growing family, and increasingly busy life. He remembers what a child would remember: a new stove with niches for salt and pepper shakers at the back; losing the chance to play Peter Rabbit in a class play by talking out of turn (but stealing the show anyway with onstage clowning); anxiously hoping that his mother brings a girl home from the hospital—"I already had a brother, and who needs two of those!" Between a detailed floor plan and the closing full family portrait, he brings classmates, lovely parents, a hilariously forbidding grandmother who comes for an extended visit, and other relatives to life, both in his seemingly artless narrative and with relentlessly charming portraits and tableaux. Seldom either shy or down for long, he is or becomes a friend to everyone here, and like the unsympathetic teacher who relents after being presented with a magnificent homemade valentine, readers will find his buoyancy irresistible. (Autobiography. 7-10)
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