DiCamillo, K. (2013). Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures. Somerville, Massachusettes: Candlewick Press.  Newbery Medal, 2014. For Ages: 8-12.
Personal Response:  This is a delightful story from a pre-teen girl’s perspective. Flora’s relationship with her mother is indifferent, like many girls that age. She reaches out to help a wild animal that becomes her best friend. I believe Flora feels that she is misunderstood and ignored by her mother. Her mother seems to not understand that she is contributing to Flora’s anger towards her with the insensitive words that she speaks to Flora. I love reading about the various adventures that Flora experienced with Ulysses and subsequently, Mrs. Tickham and her nephew – friends that she gained through the shared interest in the unique squirrel.
Literary Response:  The characters in this story each have distinct personalities. The main character, Flora is battling her feelings about the manner in which her mother regards her. Flora feels that she is ignored and feels her mother looks down on her in a sense. She even mentioned that her mother has never told her that she loved her. Flora’s mother is into writing romance novels and is passive in her relationship with Flora.  Flora’s father seems to enjoy spending time with her when he can. It seems she feels closer to her father as he seems to share some of Flora’s characteristics – characteristic that I assume her mother is not able to fully appreciate. It seems Flora’s mother maybe suppressing feelings of her own through the writing of the novels.  Mrs. Tickham, her husband Donald, their nephew William and Ulysses all have very whimsical personalities, giving comic relief to Flora’s otherwise mundane and solemn personality.

Lewis, J. (2009). Spot the Plot. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. NCTE Excellence in Children’s Poetry Award, 2011. For Ages: 4-8.

Personal Response: The style of writing and the illustrations in this book are a lot like books I read as a child. The riddles are similar to Dr. Suess’. However, I like that the reader must prior knowledge about stories in order to fully enjoy this riddle book. It encourages the reader to read books they have not already previously read. I like the way the answer to the clues are listed as the book titles on the last page. This helps young readers to understand that the riddles are about real books that they can actually obtain and read for themselves.

Literary Response: The literary theme of this book is storybook plots. It seems the author’s purpose is to engage young readers with a fun “game” and have them attempt to solve the mystery of the storybook plot. This technique should cause the reader to self-evaluate. After reading the plot of some books that weren’t previously read, the reader’s interest for reading more should be sparked. The illustrations are also based around the theme of storybook plots. Each riddle’s illustration depicts the plot of the “book of topic”. The illustrator cleverly uses characters from the “book of topic” as clues to guide the reader to discovering plots.

Hill, L. (2010 ). Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. New York, NY: Little Brown Books.
Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2011. Illustrator Award (Bryan Collins). For Ages: 4-8.
Personal Response:  I absolutely love the illustrations in this book. The illustrator’s choice of colors is brilliant. The blends of browns, grays and beiges seem to bring the pictures to life. Normally, I prefer children’s fiction books, as opposed to non-fiction, but this story reminds me of how my husband enjoys pottery. The steps that the character, Dave has to go through in making the pottery and how he feels when he does, is very similar to my husband. He loves it as well and gives him a feeling of peace and calmness.
Literary Response:  Again, the illustrations in the book tells the tale of a slave man, deeply rooted in culture, is able to pull himself out of his oppressions – if only for a while – and engross himself in his talents. His talents are making pottery and writing poetry. Although the words tell of the steps that he takes to make the pottery, the illustrations truly tell of what he is going through as a slave, artist and poet.