An update from book club! Today in Stone Soup Book Club, we discussed Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, a wonderful, whimsical novel about a girl who befriends a squirrel with superpowers! The story is mostly written in prose, and interspersed with illustrated comic sections and poems. When the novel starts out, Flora Belle Buckman describes herself as a ‘cynic,’ meaning someone who is pessimistic and reluctant to hope, probably because her parents have recently divorced and she doesn’t get along very well with her mother. But things change when she sees, in the neighbor’s backyard, a squirrel getting accidentally sucked up in a vacuum cleaner! Flora rushes over to do some squirrel-CPR, and when the squirrel (whom they name Ulysses) wakes up, it turns out he now has superpowers, including super-strength, flight, and the ability to write poetry! Unfortunately, Flora’s mom is not okay with having a squirrel living in the house, and wants to get rid of Ulysses, so Flora has to team up with her gentle father, Mr. Buckman, her poetry-loving next door neighbor, Tootie, Tootie’s temporarily-blind great-nephew William Spiver, and Mr. Buckman’s kind neighbor Dr. Meescham, to rescue Ulysses, so that he can continue helping them. Over the course of the story, Ulysses’ loving friendship makes Flora more hopeful and helps her re-connect with her mom and dad. Everybody who came really enjoyed the book. We started out our discussion by talking about what superpowers we would have if we could choose; answers including turning into animals, talking to animals, flying, etc. Then we really got into discussing the book. We shared our favorite characters and scenes, and discussed how Flora changed over the course of the story. We discussed our theories as to why William Spiver pretends to be temporarily blind; why Flora is jealous of her mother’s prized shepherdess lamp; whether or not Dr. Meescham’s home country of Blundermeecen is supposed to be a real place; what makes somebody a real superhero; what it means to be cynical; and Ulysses’ most awesome moments. After our discussion, it was time for creative writing. We had two prompts: to write a poem from the point of view of our favorite squirrel-poet Ulysses; or to write a scene from the point of view of a different kind of animal, taking into account how that kind of animal would perceive the world. People tried each of the prompts, and it was lovely to see the poems and stories that they wrote! Thank you so much to everyone who has joined Stone Soup book club over the past year. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to read, write, and talk about books together! Unfortunately, book club is going on a hiatus for now, but stay tuned for other Stone Soup classes such as the Writers Workshop, and we’ll reach out if book club starts up again in the future. In the meantime, happy reading and writing! Best wishes, Maya Mahony
Flora and Ulysses
Book Club Report: Front Desk by Kelly Yang
An update from book club! Today we discussed Kelly Yang’s award-winning novel Front Desk, which follows Mia Tang, a ten-year-old girl who immigrates to the U.S. from China with her parents, and now helps them run a motel in California. Kelly Yang wrote the novel based on her real childhood experiences. Mia and her family struggle with poverty and their mean boss, Mr. Yao. They also secretly hide other Chinese immigrants who are struggling, letting them stay the night in their motel. Mia has to deal with school, where the kids tease her for being poor and Chinese. Mia loves writing and English, although her mom wants her to focus on math, thinking that, as an immigrant, Mia won’t ever become good at English. Things get a bit better when Mia befriends a girl named Lupe, who understands what she’s going through. Mia also befriends the weeklies, the people who live permanently in the motel, including Hank, a Black man whom Mia helps exonerate from a wrongful accusation of car theft. The story comes to a climax when Mr. Yao wants to sell the motel, and Mia organizes all her new friends to band together to buy it from him. We had a lively discussion of Front Desk. Some students loved the book, and one student didn’t enjoy it because it was sad to read about all the hard things Mia and the other immigrants go through. One person loved the happy ending, while others found it unrealistic that Mia and her friends would be able to get together enough money to purchase the motel. We brainstormed different ways we would end the novel if we were writing it! We also talked about our favorite parts of the book, our favorite characters, and what we thought about Jason, Mr. Yao’s son, who has a real character arc throughout the novel, going from a bully, just like his father, to standing up for what’s right. We discussed Mia’s relationship with her mother and father; Mia’s friendship with Hank; and how lying functions in the story. Mia’s friendship with Lupe improves when they stop lying to each other about their lives; however, Mia uses lying for good when she writes a pretend reference letter for Hank, and a pretend letter from a lawyer for one of the immigrants whose passport was being withheld. People chimed in with their opinions about when it is right and wrong to lie in our own lives. Finally, we finished off with a creative writing activity. We had two prompts to choose from: writing a story about a kid put in charge of their family business for the day; or writing a list of customs and phrases for an imaginary place (like the list Mia writes about the U.S.). It was fun to see what people came up with! We’ll be back next month on November 26th at 9:00am PT to discuss Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo—looking forward to seeing you there! Our Next Book (to be discussed on November 26th): Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
