26 Fairmount Avenue- Nonfiction: Biography

26 Fairmount Avenue is the biography of Tomie dePaola. The story takes place in 1938 when little Tomie is about to start Kindergarten. He is anxiously awaiting his move to 26 Fairmount Avenue. This is where his family is building their new home that they will be moving in to as soon as it is completed. Unfortunately, things do not go quite as planned. They endure a fire, a flood, and a hurricane all to make the house take longer to be built. He also begins Kindergarten and goes to see Snow White for the first time. Even though Tomie can't wait to move in to his new house, he finds himself having to leave everything he has always known when it comes time to move. He is about to start a whole new adventure in a new place. I think that this story does a good job of showing children how times were different a long time ago. They are able to see things from the perspective of a child around their same age. It also is a good story for children who are experiencing a move. They can see how Tomie makes it through his transition to his new home okay, so they may not find it so frightening.