Yes, this quirky book features a squirrel Ulysses who, besides being able to fly, has the superpower of being able to write poetry on a typewriter! All powers gained by being vacuumed up a high-end household Ulysses 2000X. Di Camillo says she was inspired by her own mother's love of her upright vacuum cleaner. Be sure to check out "the story behind the story" on Di Camillo's website!
We had an old fashioned manual typewriter on hand for book club members to try typing quotes or whatever (!). It made it easy for the girls to imagine how long their mothers took to write their English essays on these old things! White out!
We made bookmarks integrating some of the amazing quotes in Flora & Ulysses:
"Holy unanticipated occurrences!"
"All words at all times, true or false, whispered or shouted, are clues to the workings of the human heart."
We all loved the characters in this book -- from the sunglasses wearing-temporarily blinded William Spiver to the gentle loving eccentric Dr. Meescham. "Take this squirrel, for instance. Ulysses. Do I believe he can type poetry? Sure, I do believe it. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible."
For our February books we voted between Brian Selznick's The Marvels and award-winning The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier. It turns out most of us (being huge Brian Selznick fans!) had already read The Marvels, so were keen to read The Night Gardener. Of course those who hadn't yet read The Marvels took copies of both titles -- always a keen group of readers!
Look forward to seeing you all Wed. Feb. 17, 7 - 8:30 pm at the Masonville Library, 30 North Centre Road.
NOTE: If you would like to join the book club please contact us at 519-660-4646 to register!
