No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

Author: Betty Brock

Illustrator: Wallace Tripp

Title: No Flying in the House

Publisher: HarperCollins publishers 

Date: 1970

Reading Level: 7 to 11

Number of Pages: 144

Genre: Fiction Chapter book

Summary of Plot: The story is about a little girl named Annabel Tippens who spent the first couple years of her life with out parents instead she has a tiny three-inch white dog named Gloria. What’s so neat about Gloria is that she can talk. Gloria and Annabel end up at Mrs. Vancourts home one day. Mrs. Vancourt is a lady of society she likes to be the center of attention and that fact that Gloria is only three inches tall and can talk and do different tricks she lets them stay. Over time an evil cat named Belinda shows up at the house and tells Annabel that she is not just any girl but that she is half fairy. Belinda tells Annabel how her mother is Princess Felicia and that her father was just and ordinary guy. 

Belinda also tells her that Gloria was mad into a dog to protect her. But Annabel is told not to tell anyone of Belinda’s visit so. After a while Annabel becomes friends with a girl and they decided that if Annabel was a fairy then she must be able to fly so for days and days Annabel tries to fly when she finally gets that hang of it she was told that she must never fly in the house. The rest of the book is about her adventures in talking to the evil cat that keeps getting her in trouble and then in the end Annabel’s parents come back and they realize that her father is really Mrs. Vancourt’s son.

Your Reaction to the book: I loved this book. I read it for the first time last summer when a girl that I worked with recommended it to me and I really did fall in love with it. It’s funny and different the other chapter books.

Potential Problems: I don’t see any potential problems with this book

Recommendations: I would recommend this book to those who are starting to get out of the little picture books and into chapter books because the chapters aren’t that long and there are still a few pictures in it.