YA Wednesday: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

The Fourth of July is almost upon us, and what's more American than SUPER HEROES! So, without further ado, I bring you the first book I've ever heard of featuring a Superhero squirrel. Happy Independence Day, Americans! Happy Wednesday, everyone else!

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Even though Middle Grade is a little, well, young for me, I'd still like to read all the Newbery Award Winners. I have maybe 20 left to go, and in the past few years, I've slacked a bit. So I grabbed this one from the library, figuring I could listen to it with my son in the car. I wasn't expecting much, even though I've read and enjoyed many of DiCamillo's novels.

Like a lot of books I read, I didn't read the back before starting the book. So I was a bit startled when I realized the book was about a superhero squirrel. That's right. A squirrel who is also a (suspected) superhero. At least our other title character, Flora, would like to believe when the magically blessed Ulysses enters her life. Ulysses isn't your average superhero. His feats of strength include lifting a vacuum cleaner over his head for no apparent reason. His arch nemesis is a romance writer. He vanquishes nothing more than a large cat. And he is more concerned with giant (and gianter) doughnuts than saving the world. But he may just be able to save Flora.

With wit and humor, DiCamillo proves that superheroes come in all shapes and sizes, and that even when broken, we can still shine (much like a headless shepherdess lamp).

Thirty Day Photo Challenge (Project Pinterest)

Okay, I posted a few weeks ago about week 1 of the Thirty Day Photo Challenge, but then I got busy and never ended up giving updates. And now it's over, so I'm going to sum up the last 3 weeks of it here.

Well, the challenge started out really fun, even though every time I had an outdoor challenge, the weather did not cooperate (not a cloud in the sky when I needed a cloud pic, completely cloudy when I needed a sunset...) However, I forged onwards, sometimes skipping days and making them up later, sometimes switching days. I think the point of this challenge is to take pictures of the assigned topic each day.

 

But all the cheating seemed to make the challenge not as meaningful. I know some people just go and find a picture of said topic each day, but I really wanted to take the assigned pics each day. But we all have busy lives, and sometimes I just forgot, or couldn't take the right picture when I thought of it. So I wasn't as successful as I would have liked. Here were some of the pics I took. 

 I realized several things about my limited photography skills during this challenge. For one, I'm not very creative or imaginative. Most of my pictures are of myself, Gabe, or flowers/food/animals. I don't think outside the box very well, and of course, having only a cell phone for a camera doesn't help. So, I'm not sure I'd call his experiment a success. But it was one more project I did via Pinterest.