Where I'd Like to Be

Written by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Narrated by Denise Wilbanks

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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 8, 2003
• ISBN: 9780807215753

Frances O'Roark Dowell

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 Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; The Second Life of Abigail Walker, which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; The Class; How to Build a Story; and most recently, Hazard. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.

Reviews for Where I'd Like to Be

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maddie lives in an orphanage in the present day. She is more or less at peace with her situation, and her best friend is the much younger six year old boy Ricky Ray. Until Murphy comes to the Home. Murphy is one of those magnetic people with whom everyone wants to be friends. Their friendship is tenuous at first, but grows stronger as the two them, Ricky Ray, Donita (another girl from the Home) and a well off boy from their middle school all become a little clique of their own on a mission to build a fort.
The book takes a tragic turn towards the end, and I cried along with Maddie. But there is a redeeming conclusion.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maddie grew up happy, even though her mother left her and she didn't know who her father was. For awhile, she lived with a dear old woman she called Granny Lane, until diabetes made it impossible for her to care for a child. Now living in a home with other children from various home situations, Maddie meets the new girl, Murphy, and thinks they might become friends. She has no idea how much of an impact Murphy will have on her life and that of some of the other children in the town.

I read this story once before, but it was maybe seven years ago and I'd completely forgotten what happens. Denise Wilbanks' narration has a Southern lilt that helped me remember that the story is set in Tennessee, another detail I'd forgotten. Where I'd Like to Be perfectly captures the tensions, worries, and joys of childhood friendship as Maddie, Murphy, and their friends go to school together, play together, fight and make up. Maddie narrates so we have her perspective perfectly, while her descriptions of the others' actions give us insight into their points of view as well. In some ways, I was reminded of The Egypt Game, though the imaginative stories of these children are much closer to home, so to speak. Listening to the audio, I missed some of the details either by being distracted or because the reading was drawn out over a week, but I've made a note that I want to read it again.

[coriblake · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

' Where I'd Like To Be ' is a lovely story about friendships, hopes and dreams. Maddie is a highly imaginative young lady especially when it comes to her uncertain future. Many young adult readers are able to relate to that particular aspect of her character. ' Where I'd Like To Be ' is a rather slow paced tale of a young girl wanting to belong who comes to the realizatoin that she has much to offer her friends and a potential adoptive family. There is no 'wow' factor seeing as the storyline is fairly predicatble. ' Where I'd Like To Be ' is a nice story about a young girl's visualization of her hopes for the future.

[heather19_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A VERY good book about a girl at a children's home (Maddie) who befriends the new girl, Murphy. Murphy tells outragous stories and is clearly hiding things, but Maddie becomes very close to her and learns what true friendship is about when things turn bad.