She stood at the window and watched as the squirrel was vacuumed up.

Poof. Fwump.

“Holy bagumba!” said Flora

Flora Belle Buckman is a natural-born cynic. She likes nothing more than to spend her days reading comic books, something that her romance-writing mother feels is a waste of time. The irony of her mother’s opinion is not lost on Flora. With her parents divorced, she no longer has a father at home who will read to her The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!, her favorite comic book, and trying to voice the hero’s parrot side-kick Dolores on her own is just not the same.

Flora Belle Buckman is looking for someone with whom to do something heroic.

Who knew that “someone” would be a vacuumed up squirrel?

Continue reading Flora & Ulysses ~Kate DiCamillo →

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.”

Yesterday it was Bridge to Terabithia, today it is Tuck Everlasting. My journey through some of the classics of children’s literature continues.

Tuck Everlasting is a story I am familiar with because of its film adaptation, and though I had thought of reading it more than once in the years since the film’s release, that idea never stuck around long enough to take root. I’m happy I did not give the inspiration a chance to fade away this time. Natalie Babbitt wrote something very special 41 years ago, so it is not surprising that the copy I found on the shelf at Barnes and Noble yesterday was a nice 40th anniversary edition, complete with extras.

Tuck Everlasting asks that age-old question: If you could drink from the proverbial Fountain of Youth and live forever, would you do so? Babbit’s examination of this question through the eyes of eleven-year-old Winnie Foster, and the family who claims to be immortal and unchanging, makes for a compelling read.

Continue reading Tuck Everlasting ~Natalie Babbitt →

Try as I might I am hard-pressed to picture this first quarter of 2016 as being anything but largely Spring-like. Granted, I can remember some very chilly days out walking and running the trails, but the very fact that I have done that this year as opposed to allowing the cold to hold me prisoner in my warm castle, has given rise to the belief that we are in perpetual Spring. And with nature stirring expectantly in its winter bed, something unexpected has been stirring within me: the desire to experience previously unread children’s classics.

That stirring became a call to action today when, for no apparent reason, I felt compelled to go buy copies of Bridge to Terabithia and Tuck Everlasting. I have seen and enjoyed both film adaptations, but had never read the books. In regards to Katherine Paterson’s 1977 Newbery Award novel, that is no longer the case.

Continue reading Bridge to Terabithia ~Katherine Paterson →