Luka and the Fire of Life

Title: Luka and the Fire of Life: A Novel     
Author: Salman Rushdie 
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 2010    
Genre/Format: Fantasy/Novel 
Summary: Luka finds himself embarking on a whimsical but daunting quest into a parallel, magical world of his dad's stories in order to save his dad by retrieving the Fire of Life. 
What I Think: I am still completely in awe of the way Rushdie puts words together. His writing is just completely wonderful to me.  This story is more than just beautiful writing though, the plot and characters are great.  How can you not love a dog named Bear and a bear named Dog?  I was cracking up at the two of them and then swept along with the story before I even realized what was going on.  In a way, this book reminded me of a video game where you get caught up in moving from one challenge to the next but at the same time reminded me of The Odyssey as Luka has to maneuver through all the different obstacles presented to him.  I am already excited to read Haroun and the Sea of Stories which is the story of Luka's brother (which I think is a prequel/companion book).
     I wish I could remember who recommended this book or where I heard about it because I feel like I need to talk to him or her about how brilliant this book is.  I could gush about it all day...I might have to reread it because it's just that good.
Read Together: 6 - 12 
Read Alone: 6 - 12 
Read With: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, The Odyssey by Homer, Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon by David Almond, Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Snatch of Text: “There was once, in the city of Kahani, in the land of Alifbay, a boy named Luka who had two pets, a bear named Dog and a dog named Bear, which meant that whenever he called out, ‘Dog!’ the bear waddled up amiably on his hind legs, and when he shouted ‘Bear!’ the dog bounded toward him, wagging his tail.” p.1 (first sentence)
Reading Strategies to Practice: Visualizing, Making Inferences, Making Predictions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Expanding Sentences, $100 Words, Descriptive, Folk Literature, Word Choice, Parts of Speech
Writing Prompts: Find a sentence in your writer's notebook or in one of your writing pieces and revise it by adding prepositional phrases and clauses like Rushdie.   
Topics Covered: Family, Life, Taking Risks, Adventure, Folk Literature 
Translated to Spanish: No