26 Fairmount Avenue (Newbery Honor Book, 2000)

Tomie's family starts building their new house at 26 Fairmount Avenue in 1938, just as a hurricane hits town, starting off a busy, crazy year. Tomie has many adventures all his own, including eating chocolate with his Nana Upstairs, only to find out--the hard way--that they have eaten chocolate laxative. He tries to skip kindergarten when he finds out he won't learn to read until first grade. "I'll be back next year," he says. When Tomie goes to see Snow White, he creates another sensation. Tomie dePaola's childhood memories are hilarious, and his charming illustrations are sure to please.

Customer Reviews:

Introducing Personal Narratives to Young Writers

By mt - January 23, 2000

26 Fairmont Avenue, simply written, is an easily understood example of writing from life experiences. I used this book as a read-aloud with my third grade class to introduce the concept of writing from memories and experiences. The students enjoyed hearing DePaola's story of his family's new house and were able to understand that the simplest things in our lives are often the best source of writing ideas.

26 Fairmount Avenue...A Treasure

By Roz Levine - May 31, 2001

In 1938, Tomie dePaola is five years old and things are really beginning to happen. His family is building a new house with two floors and will be moving out of the apartment he's lived in his whole life. He'll be starting kindergarten, hopefully learning to read, and he just can't wait. Walt Disney's Snow White is at the movies and everybody's excited about going to see it and that was the year the big hurricane struck Connecticut..... Told in the first person, Mr dePaola has written a wonderfully heartwarming, autobiographical story, full of humor, drama, suspense and just the day to day ups and downs of a little boy's life. His easy to read text is written in a gentle conversational tone and fans of dePaola will recognize characters from his picture books, (Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs). This continuity adds intimacy to the story and makes youngsters feel like a part of the family. Perfect for readers 7-11, 26 Fairmount Avenue is also a terrific read aloud family book and... read more

A great children's story

By A Kid's Review - July 7, 2001

"26 Fairmount Avenue" is the first of this author's chapter books. It tells about dePaola and his family as a child, moving into a new house and a tragic hurricane. Tomie tells the story with grade level words for early chapter book readers. And there are illustrations too. But they are in black and white, like alot of chapter books would be in. This book is great. It even won the Newberry Medal.