Book Challenge #1

Dear Students,

     This past week I FINALLY finished Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo.  I have heard wonderful things about Ms. DiCamillo as an author, but have never read anything of hers.  That is one reason I am excited to be doing the 40 Book Challenge with you.  I really thought this book would be realistic fiction. However, I quickly found out I was mistaken.  It is for sure a fantasy book. (YAY for getting one of those crossed off my list!)  It is a fantasy because in the book the squirrel communicates with the humans around him and he writes poetry to express how he is feeling at the time.  I knew when he picked up the vacuum cleaner that this was not going to be realistic fiction at all!
     This is a different kind of book in that it mixes normal chapters with types of comic book features.  This is because Flora, the girl in the book who loves Ulysses the squirrel, reads a ton of comic books.  She relates everything that happens to Ulysses to the things that happen in her comic book world.  This makes it easy to read.  The chapters are pretty short, so if you can read a lot at one time or can just read a little bit.
     I think many of you would enjoy this book because it has a super hero and a villian (Flora's mother).  It would be a good transition for some of you from the graphic novels you are reading to a novel.  I hope many of you will choose to read this book at some point this year.

                                                         Love,
                                                            Your teacher who doesn't like to read fantasy books,
                                                                           
                                                                       Mrs. Becky
 

Mrs. Becky and Ms. Melodie with our first books in the 40 Book Challenge!