Flora & Ulysses

Author: Kate DiCamillo

Genre: Realistic fiction (pretty much)

Setting: Flora's house and a few other places in her town (I'm not quite sure on the time)

Summary: Ulysses is a normal squirrel until he is accidentally sucked up in a vacuum cleaner and is saved by a girl named Flora. Ulysses is loved by some people: Flora, her dad, Mrs. Tickham (the owner of the vacuum cleaner), and her grand-nephew, William Spiver. But there are some people who do not feel that way, including a waitress at a donut shop and Flora's mom. Flora's mom doesn't think that Flora is normal. Her solution to normalize Flora is to get rid of Ulysses... permanently. Ulysses is a brave squirrel, and he is a super hero, but is that enough to escape the clutches of Flora's mom?

I thought this book was really good. It was funny in some parts and a bit more serious in other parts. I enjoyed it a lot. It has some action in it, but some of it doesn't really seem like the dangerous and scary kind of action. I think most people would like it and it definitely deserves the Newbery Award.

Scat

Author: Carl Hiaasen

Genre: Mystery
 Setting: Florida, USA around the time when the book was written (2009)
Summary: Mrs. Starch is the scariest teacher at the Truman School. When her biology class takes a field trip to the Black Vine Swamp, they have to leave early because of a sudden forest fire. It turns out that the forest fire
wasn't a forest fire; it was arson. The prime suspect is Duane Scrod Jr., one of the students, who made Mrs. Starch angry and threatened her. When the students have to go back on the bus, Mrs. Starch goes back into the forest by herself to get a student's medicine. The medicine is left on the student's doorstep, but the only sign of Mrs. Starch is her car, which was being driven by a man with a mask. The other person in the car was none other than Duane Scrod Jr. Several people are trying to find out what happened to Mrs. Starch and how the fire relates to it; the police, the headmaster, and Mrs. Starch's students Nick and Marta.

This is one of those books where you know part of what happened but the people in the book don't. It makes me want to tell the characters who did it. I think the characters in Scat are interesting, like the substitute teacher, Wendell Waxmo, who is completely loopy, and Mrs. Starch herself, who is rumored to live in a house full of taxidermied animals.

A Snicker of Magic

Author: Natalie Lloyd
Genre: Fantasy
Setting: Midnight Gulch, Tennessee in present day (or close to it)
Summary: Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place. It still is, but it only has a little bit of magic. Felicity Pickle is a word collector. She can see words around people, coming from objects, and floating in the air. She writes down the ones she likes. When Felicity moves to Midnight Gulch, she sees the word lonely a lot until she meets Jonah Pickett, who's secret identity is the Beedle, a mysterious person who does good deeds for people secretly. Felicity hears the story of the Brothers Threadbare, really called Stone and Berry Weatherly, who had magic in their music. They dueled each other, and the one who lost was cursed with a wandering heart, so they never felt right in one place, a lot like Felicity's mother. Felicity signs up for the Stoneberry Duel, a kind of talent show. She decides to write and read poems for it. Jonah makes her meet several interesting people so she can collect interesting words. Felicity is also interested in the curse put on Stone Weatherly, who turned out to be her great-great-grandfather. But mostly, she wants to break the curse.

I had a fun time reading A Snicker of Magic. It seems like the kind of place that I would want to visit. Some things in it that were revealed later were pretty easy to guess, but I wasn't able to guess everything though. I think most people would enjoy reading it.

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing

Author: Sheila Turnage
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Tupelo Landing, NC
Summary: Mo LoBeau washed up in Tupelo Landing in a hurricane when she was a baby. Now she lives with the Colonel and Miss Lana. Miss Lana ends up buying the old Tupelo Inn at an auction. It turns out that the inn is being haunted by a ghost. Mo and her friend Dale have to interview someone old for a history project. There's extra credit for the student who interviews the oldest person, so they decide to interview the ghost. There are a couple problems. One is, they aren't exactly sure that the ghost is real. Miss Lana and Grandmother Miss Lacy Thornton are spending a lot of money to fix up the inn. Then there are problems with Red Baker. There's also a new kid in town, who's name is Crenshaw, Harm Crenshaw. (Like Bond, James Bond.) There are so many problems. They don't know just how connected everything is.

This book is actually the sequel to Three Times Lucky, which is a 2013 Newbery Honor book. I think it would be okay to read this one first, but Three Times Lucky is better at introducing the characters. I thought this was really fun to read. In the middle, it seemed like the problems were fixed, but they weren't really.

Floors

Author: Patrick Carman
Genre: Mystery (sort of)
Setting: Whippet Hotel, New York, present day
Summary: The Whippet Hotel is known for being the weirdest building ever. With Merganzer Whippet (the owner of the hotel) gone and endless problems with the hotel, things are not looking good. When four mysterious boxes appear, it becomes clearer to Leo Fillmore, the janitor's son, that he needs to save the Whippet Hotel. He must go strange floors and solve puzzles with the help of a duck and a new friend. What's really going on?

This book has so many wacky things in it. There are half floors, crazy guests, and unusual things everywhere. It has some action but it doesn't really seem like the extremely dangerous kind of action.