The first in a series of autobiographical books by author/illustrator Tomie dePaola, 26 Fairmount Avenue chronicles the childhood of a boy growing up in late 1930s/40s. This Newbery Honor book is charmingly simple and warm.
DePaola tells stories from his youth in plain language which doesn't lose the humor or excitement of the incidents. Whether he's describing the building of their "first and only" family home in Connecticut, his disappointing experience seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the first time, or ringing in the New Year with his brother and friends, dePaola includes just the right number of interesting details to give us a good sense of what it was really like to grow up during that time. One of my favorite stories comes from his first day of kindergarten. He asks the teacher when they get to learn how to read, and when she tells him that doesn't happen until next year, he says he'll come back then, and marches straight home.
26 Fairmount Avenue is an excellent introduction to the genre of autobiography/biography as well as a wonderful historical portrait of life during that era.
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