Sunny+Boy

=//Sunny Boy! The Life and Times of a Tortoise// by Candace Fleming=

Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf

Summary
In this fictionalized account, Sunny Boy, a 100-year-old tortoise, describes various events in his long life including the dangerous barrel ride over Niagara Falls that he takes with his daredevil owner on July 5, 1930.*

Reviews

 * **Mrs. Ranaletta's class:** We liked the illustrations and the characters were fun. The words were too small, and we didn't like all the relatives dying.
 * **Mrs. Kenyon's class:** We liked how the turtle described some of his adventures. We enjoyed learning the real facts at the end. We enjoyed the fact that the fictional characters had realistic characteristics. We also liked that the turtle survived and how he changed over time. We enjoyed the use of similes. We thought there were too many owners. We didn't like when Biff quit being a daredevil. In the historical part, we didn't like that the real person died.
 * **Anonymous class:** We liked the adventure and danger in this story. We thought it was funny when they went down the falls. When the tortoise blacked out, we laughed. We liked the illustrations, especially the cow that looked scared when Biff came zooming by. We thought the end and the truth behind the tale was sad.
 * **Mrs. Reid's class:** We liked the crazy and death-defying stunts. We didn't like that he was going to be an explorer at the South Pole.
 * **Mrs. Crymes' class:** We thought this book was funny. We liked Niagara Falls, the characters, the tortoise, the names, and the illustrations. We didn't really like that quietness of the tortoise's life and that some of the characters died.

Links
Interview with the author: http://www.rif.org/readingplanet/bookzone/content/fleming.mspx include page="LOC Citation"