Autobiography: Here we all Are by Tomie DePaola (Chapter Book)

In this autobiography of the author, Tomie DePaola, he takes the readers into his life as his parents prepare for the arrival of the new baby sister. He also talks about getting revenge for not being able to play Peter Rabbit in the school play as well as starting tap lessons at Miss Leah’s. As the months go by he describes all of the events in his life during this time very vividly for the readers. He has even included pictures to help the readers see what he is talking about. He shares the happy and sad times during his life and it almost makes the readers want to be a part of his family. One of the events he talks about when he was in kindergarten and no matter how many times he wanted to spell his name Tomie his teachers always spelled it wrong. I can relate to that seeing that no one ever spells my name right. I could’ve told them a million times the correct way but it could never stick. Thinking of a lesson that would incorporate this book was rather difficult. However, I thought it would interesting to have the students write their own autobiography. If they used this book as a reference they could see how the author took actual events from his life and wrote about them. The students would also have to draw pictures to go with the stories.