Flora and Ulysses

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo is the Newbery Medal winner for 2014.  It is about 11-year-old cynic Flora who loves comic books.  One day she sees her neighbor outside with an extreme vacuum cleaner, and Flora witnesses a squirrel get vacuumed up.  After Flora does CPR (learned from the Terrible Things Can Happen To You comic strip she follows) on the squirrel, she realizes that the squirrel has been changed--and is now a superhero.  The book follows Flora as she builds a relationship with the squirrel (Ulysses), tries to protect the squirrel from her mother (probably Ulysses's archnemesis), and meets lots of friends along the way.

This book is so, so, SO weird but somehow also engaging, entertaining, and heart-warming.  Kate DiCamillo is an awesome author. (I have loved several of her books--Tale of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane are two of them.) This book had a familiar writing style to me since I've read her books before, and it was (obviously) super well written.  The characters were all so well developed and interesting.  There could be fascinating books written about almost all of the side characters as main characters (Dr. Meescham, Tootie, William Spiver, even Flora's parents).  Flora was a likable, relatable girl, and Ulysses was an unlikely hero.  I enjoyed the book.  The weirdness distracted me a little bit (since I kept stopping reading to comment to myself about how odd it was), but I think kids would find this book hilarious.  I think even Emmeline would love the humor in this book, but the vocabulary in the book is more upper elementary, so we'll wait.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

The Year of Billy Miller

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes is a 2014 Newbery Honor Book, and I'm working on reading all the 2014 Newberys right now.  This book is about second grader Billy Miller and his interactions with his teacher (part 1), dad (part 2), sister (part 3), and mom (part 4).  From making a diorama for school to dealing with his crying little sister to wanting to stay up super late, Billy is just your typical, likable kid.

This was a quick, cute read.  It was written for a much younger audience than books I usually read.  (This is a lower elementary book--like first through third grade readers.)  I only read it because it's a Newbery, and I have a goal to just read as many of them as possible.  It was a well-written book and a cute story, but I didn't really feel like I got much out of it...most likely since it was written for 7-year-olds.  :) There just wasn't any big climax or conflict or anything; rather, it was just more focused on Billy's day-to-day life.  But I think it will be a cute book to recommend to or read aloud with Emmeline when she's a little older.

Rating: * (1/3 = It was okay)

Paperboy

I saw Paperboy by Vince Vawter on the new children's book shelf at the library a couple months ago and checked it out, but I never got around to reading it.  Then the 2014 Newbery Medal and Honor winners were announced last month, and Paperboy was one of the honor winners.  So, I got the book from the library again and read it this time.  :)  The book tells the story of an 11-year-old boy with a stuttering problem.  When he takes over his friend's paper route for the summer, he experiences new situations and new interactions and begins to find himself.

This was a really nice read.  It was slower for me to get through at times, but I felt like it really did put me in the mind of this sweet, smart 11-year-old.  He had so much he felt and so much he wanted to say, but there was so little he could actually articulate without difficulty.  This book reminded me of books I've read in the past like Out of My Mind or Wonder, where a child who never really expresses him/herself shares his/her mind through the book.  I didn't love Paperboy quite as much as those two books, but I liked reading it.  I was especially touched when I read the Author's Note at the end of the book and realized that this book was more of a memoir than fiction--the author himself has stuttered since he was 5 years old (more than 60 years of stuttering).  He writes, "Have I been cured of my stutter? No. Have I overcome it? Yes." That was the message from the book itself--you aren't defined by your limitations.  A beautiful message.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)