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Candice Klopfenstein is an author and artist. She loves time with her family, reading books, spending time in nature, sharing a meal with friends, watching movies, and exploring beaches. As a child, she developed a lifelong love for picture books, creating art projects, collecting seashells and the warmth of sunshine. Her personal journey of belonging has led her to look for ways to help others to experience a life full of peace, hope, joy and laughter. Through friendships with refugees, working with a local refugee organization and living in countries with diverse cultures she came to understand the fundamental desire of people everywhere to have a secure and peaceful place to call home. This realization led her to write stories that bring hope to children and families who have experienced loss. Candice lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband. This is her first book for children.
Reviewed by Sherri Fulmer Moorer for Readers' Favorite
We all find security in our homes, and this is especially true for children. Unfortunately, the reality is that not all children have a stable place that they can call home in a global crisis that has displaced many people. Wars, conflicts, human rights violations, environmental disasters, and economic hardships are causing people to lose or leave their homes at an alarming rate. While these are adult issues, they do have an impact on children. It can be difficult to offer them hope when your own faith is struggling. The Place Where I Belong, by Candice Klopfenstein, can help both children and adults find their identity and faith again in an unstable world.
I admire how well this book, which is beautifully illustrated by Antonia Ruppert, offers young readers identity and hope. It’s focused on helping children find themselves through internal characteristics of love, family, creativity, joy, and peace. Children are encouraged to look all around them to find the security that roots them in their identity, and to grow through relationships with family, friends, and neighbors to build new homes for the future. The Place Where I Belong offers both adults and children hope through life-giving affirmations, and encourages them to build faith and self-esteem as they find new homes. Candice Klopfenstein offers readers a beautiful and encouraging book that lets readers know that they are not alone in this struggle and that there is always hope for the future. This is a beautiful and encouraging book that I highly recommend to help everyone better understand this crisis and how it affects people.
