Hello Everyone,

For my advanced children’s literature class this summer, I was required to review five books on my class’s Wikispaces using specified criteria. In this post and the next four, I have included my Goodreads reviews of the five titles that mirror what I posted on Wikispaces.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Citation: DiCamillo, K. (2013). Flora and Ulysses: The illuminated adventures. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 9780763676711

Award: 2014 Newberry Winner

Summary: Flora Belle Buckham is a natural-born cynic who loves comic books, especially about mild-mannered janitor Alfred T. Slipper becoming the Amazing Incandesto. When a neighbor vacuums up a squirrel with her new Ulysses 2000X vacuum cleaner, Flora runs to the rescue and discovers a superhero: a strong, flying, and typing squirrel, which understands human speech; she dubs the superhero Ulysses and they set out to find his arch-nemesis to vanquish. Who is that arch-nemesis? What does Ulysses type? Does he vanquish his arch-nemesis? Does he do so with strength, flying, or words?

Likes/Dislikes: Recommended for ages 8-12, Flora and Ulysses is divided into sixty-eight chapters, most written in complete prose, some incorporating illustrations acting like comic book frames or full-page illustrations. Some chapters use framed illustrations to push the story along; I really enjoyed the integration of the “comic book” chapters and feel that aspect can interest readers of graphic novels and comics to try Flora and Ulysses. The only dislike I have for the novel is its lack of a table of contents, even though all chapters have titles. I would like to have seen all the chapter titles together to aid in my predicting upcoming occurrences and keeping track of my place in reading.

Curriculum Connections: This novel would help readers transition from prose novel format to graphic novel format or vice versa, since it incorporates chapters or sections in chapters that function like a graphic novel. A literature circle or whole-class read of Flora and Ulysses with fifth grade students would provide opportunities to discuss how the visual elements contribute to the meaning or tone of the text (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7).

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure since it contains “events and experiences that could not take place in the known world” (Hintz & Tribunella, 2013, p. 311) and “involves escaping an undesirable situation” (Hintz & Tribunella, p. 195).

Classroom Activity: The novel uses numerous interesting and sophisticated words, such as “cynic,” “appellation,” and “appalled,” that might pique students’ interests in learning their meanings. The Vocabulary Self-Selection Strategy would be an appropriate accompanying classroom activity, since it would “encourage independent learning by allowing students to self-select terms to be studied” (as cited in Antonacci & O’Callaghan, 2012, p. 88).

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler

References

Antonacci, P. A. & O’Callaghan, C. M. (2012). Promoting literacy development: 50 research-based strategies for K-8 learners. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Hintz, C. & Tribunella, E. L. (2013). Reading children’s literature: A critical introduction. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.