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Flying Solo
by
Friday, April 28, 9:00 a.m.
Opportunity is knocking at the door of Mr. "Fab" Fabiano's sixth-grade class. Mr. Fab is absent and a substitute never arrives. The class wants to prove that KIDS RULE, so they decide to run the class on their own. Super smart Karen leads the way in the class routines and most of the kids join in. But for Rachel White, this isn't just any other d ...more
Opportunity is knocking at the door of Mr. "Fab" Fabiano's sixth-grade class. Mr. Fab is absent and a substitute never arrives. The class wants to prove that KIDS RULE, so they decide to run the class on their own. Super smart Karen leads the way in the class routines and most of the kids join in. But for Rachel White, this isn't just any other d ...more
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Paperback, 144 pages
Published
April 11th 2000
by Yearling
(first published 1998)
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Michaela Farber
They will probably be friends. They may show up in another book soon!!
Tygan
That anoying kid was christopher.
Community Reviews
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Start your review of Flying Solo
This book is about a couple of classroom room kids, their teacher is not there. There supose to have a substitute teacher and they do not show up. So they have a class all to themselves. What they do is try to run the class themselves. They also think about some other things that happened in the past.
Well i can sort of connect to this because i had substitute teachers before and sometimes they went out the class and did not show up for a while. So i tried to run things. It didnt work but it w ...more
Well i can sort of connect to this because i had substitute teachers before and sometimes they went out the class and did not show up for a while. So i tried to run things. It didnt work but it w ...more
The substitute fails to show up, and the 6th grade students decide to manage their unsupervised classroom all day. The adults at the school are unaware that the sub did not arrive.
That's nuts! This would not happen in real life. That's the scenario that makes this book a winner.
Readers will enjoy the references to Gary Paulsen's survival book, HATCHET, and to that wonderful book, ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN. Readers will enjoy discussing the serious nature of the decisions reached by the fictional ...more
That's nuts! This would not happen in real life. That's the scenario that makes this book a winner.
Readers will enjoy the references to Gary Paulsen's survival book, HATCHET, and to that wonderful book, ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN. Readers will enjoy discussing the serious nature of the decisions reached by the fictional ...more
I enjoyed this book. I had received this book from Mrs. Ellis when we got to pick a book from her. This is about a sixth grade class and their teacher was out for the day. Their sub called in sick but the secretary's note got lost. The class ended up with no teacher for they day. They try taking matters into their own hands to go though the whole school day without a teacher. Read the book to find out how these sixth grade students handle this by themselves. I recommend this book. Do they get ca
...more
It was a super book to read!
My seven-year old read this book, then came into my room, handed it to me and said, "Mom, you should read this. I think you would like it." Well, he was right. Well written, engaging story and deep characters (for a children's book). Honestly, I think some of the character lessons probably went over my almost-second-grader's head, but I sure saw them. So many of the characters were dealing with deeply personal issues that no one else saw. It is such a great lesson in being kind because you don't
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This is my second time I'm reading it. It's a really quick read and it's a good book.
...more
Ralph Fletcher, author of Flying Solo is an author I greatly admire, in all the genres in which he writes: non-fiction (A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You, How Writers Work: Finding a Process That Works for You, Live Writing); poetry (Relatively Speaking, A Writing Kind Of Day: Poems for Young Poets) and fiction (Spider Boy and, of course, Flying Solo).
Reading Flying Solo was a very satisfying experience-Fletcher manages to work in some of his favorite ideas about the hows and ...more
Reading Flying Solo was a very satisfying experience-Fletcher manages to work in some of his favorite ideas about the hows and ...more
I might be a little biased with my negativity about this book because when I started reading it I had already "bought" (using Scholastic points instead of dollars) multiple copies in hopes that it could be a literature circle book for my fifth grade class. It only took a few chapters for me to realize I would not be teaching this book as assigned reading for a few reasons.
First of all, and this may be nit-picky, but as a teacher who has worked in many, many public schools, the entire premise of ...more
First of all, and this may be nit-picky, but as a teacher who has worked in many, many public schools, the entire premise of ...more
This book always kept me wanting to read more. There was always something happening that made you want to find out what happened next. I also liked how it jumped from person to person each chapter. So you could see different peoples points of view. There are some parts that almost made me cry or laugh out loud. I read this book before and I liked it so much that I read it again. I love how the students in this book are doing everything they are supposed to. I mean I usually do the things we are
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This book is talking about one day in the class of six graders. Rachel is one of these. There has a boy names, Tommy. He made the pie every day and put the biggest one to Rachel. He has been ask Rachel can she be his girlfriend. But Rachel refuse him. One night, Tommy dead in his bed, doctor said it is made by his disease. After that, Rachel doesn’t speak anymore.
One day, their teacher was absent. The class of six grade are running by their self. Karen was the little teacher, she lead the cla ...more
One day, their teacher was absent. The class of six grade are running by their self. Karen was the little teacher, she lead the cla ...more
I really liked this book cause it was realistic. I thought that's what typical kids would have done but most of all I liked how all the characters grew in the story. I feel like all the characters grew a lot more responsible. Especially Rachel, Sebastian and Karen. They matured more and they started to think more. For example Sebastian changed his mind about taking his dog to Hawaii and Rachel started talking. Karen became a real leader. I think that they did great with a teacher not there if th
...more
This book worked better than I thought it would, just from reading the blurbs. There is a lot of thinking crammed into a short-ish novel. In fact, it reads a little bit like a series of short stories - short vignettes tied together by some common threads. But it comes together surprisingly well.
I wasn't completely satisfied with the ethics of the resolution, but then I am a substitute teacher and I am perhaps biased by my experiences with 6th grade classes. ...more
I wasn't completely satisfied with the ethics of the resolution, but then I am a substitute teacher and I am perhaps biased by my experiences with 6th grade classes. ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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i really liked this book! it was a quick read. The ending was not as satisfying as the rest of the book but i still liked it!
Its a good book but at the beginning it changes POV's so many times.
...more
Feb 03, 2020
Beau Marcella-Wells
added it
it was a good fit for me
The book flying solo was a book about Mr. Fabiano’s sixth grade class and he didn’t show up so they expect a sub but no sub shows up so the class decides to try and run the class by themselves lying to all the teachers that come in. The boys in the class try to just play games but the girls start to follow the sub plans so they got the class to do it. When kids walk in the class they tell the truth but tell them to keep it a secret but when a teacher comes in the sub is in the bathroom. Recently
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A 6th grade class is nearing the end of the year when a sequence of coincidences leave them without a teacher or a sub one Friday. They decide to run the class themselves without adult supervision and eventually make it to the end of the day without being detected. Throughout the day, students have short writing periods and share what they wrote. Sub plots include one student who is an Air Force brat who is leaving for Hawaii the next day (and is struggling with whether or not to take his puppy
...more
This book was... different. Not bad different, just different... Flying Solo takes place in a 6th grade classroom all day. The class is left without a teacher for the day. They figure out how to run the class by themselves.
WHAT I LIKED:
-Brought back good memories from my 6th grade year
-I could really connect with the characters
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
-The concept was kind of stupid. I know this book was written in 1998, so of course things have changed. It's just super unrealistic.
TOPICS:
-Death
-Clas ...more
WHAT I LIKED:
-Brought back good memories from my 6th grade year
-I could really connect with the characters
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
-The concept was kind of stupid. I know this book was written in 1998, so of course things have changed. It's just super unrealistic.
TOPICS:
-Death
-Clas ...more
I should begin by saying that I picked this off my younger brother's bookshelf because I needed something to read... And to be quite frank, I'm glad I did.
For a children's novel, I'm impressed. Remarkably impressed. I'm much too old for the book, (the copy my brother handed me says it's recommended for ages 9-12) but I was intrigued when I saw that Fletcher was handling something as heavy as a student's death. It's undoubtedly intentionally geared towards the younger readers, but I enjoyed findi ...more
For a children's novel, I'm impressed. Remarkably impressed. I'm much too old for the book, (the copy my brother handed me says it's recommended for ages 9-12) but I was intrigued when I saw that Fletcher was handling something as heavy as a student's death. It's undoubtedly intentionally geared towards the younger readers, but I enjoyed findi ...more
I recomend this book for everyone this book is really emotional and exiting this book teaches you about freindship and how to really savor your memories and think about them beacause they are not going to be there forever.I learned that you might have something to love but you only love it or realize it once you have to move away or give it away because you know that it's not going to be there for the rest of your life.This compares to me because this is my last year in fith grade in my school a
...more
After all these years I’ve finally found it. This book served as a premonition for me. The plot follows a class that had the substitute teacher not show up and they decided to run the class themselves. On the same fateful day that I read this in sixth grade the same experience happened to my english class. I believe this book holds all the secrets to the universe and it should not fall into the wrong hands.
I read this in my 6th grade class with a small group of students. It was pretty good! The entire story takes place in one day, which is cool because the chapters follow the time of day as the story unfolds. A class of students is left to fend for themselves without a teacher or substitute. Will they be able to make it the whole day in school without adult supervision?
Not the best book but definitely not the Worst!
For me it was great because I'm still in grade school!
I don't think it is a good book for high school students but if you are in grade school still I highly recommend it! ...more
For me it was great because I'm still in grade school!
I don't think it is a good book for high school students but if you are in grade school still I highly recommend it! ...more
This book is about there are a class of students their teacher is not there. The teacher who should showing up didn’t shows up, so that they try to run the class by themselves. During that time they also think about the things happened before.
these kids reall can manage a class.
So that just proves everyone can.
But at the end of the school day they get busted.
So that just proves everyone can.
But at the end of the school day they get busted.
This is a great book. My teacher when I was 5th grade, my teacher had read it to our class and it was very fun. Its one of my favorite books until now.
I love this book. I remember ms.trataris reading this to us. We laughed at times and also wanted to tear up at tiems I would want to read this book again and again.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA book. A girl who doesn't speak. [s] | 4 | 553 | Dec 31, 2020 08:36PM | |
| Flying Solo | 1 | 3 | May 09, 2020 01:07PM | |
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Children's book about an elementary class that didn't have a teacher that day and a classmate of theirs recently died. [s] | 8 | 668 | Nov 09, 2018 08:19PM |
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Ralph Fletcher is a friend of young writers and readers as well as writing teachers. He has written or co-authored many books for writing teachers includng Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, Teaching the Qualities of Writing, Lessons for the Writer's Notebook, Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices, and Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing. Ralph has worked with teachers a
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“Writing words is like flying, Rachel thought. Words aren’t solid. Words are lighter than air. But even so, they can sometimes give you a lift.”
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“STORIES . . . 1) are unique as snowflakes. No two are exactly alike. 2) contain small details that often turn out to be important. 3) involve limits: particular characters in a particular place and time. 4) put characters in difficult situations. 5) force characters to make moral choices. 6) contain a problem or conflict that often gets worse before it gets better. 7) connect the ordinary with the extraordinary. 8) usually contain a surprise. (Or two.) 9) sometimes turn on a “moment of silence.” 10) rarely turn out the way you expect.”
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