Illustrations are gorgeous watercolor paintings and show the perspective from a small fly as he finds himself surrounded inside a house. 3 pets chase this fly around, inadvertently helping a young boy with a chore. Humorous and creative story, the pictures make it a 5 star read-aloud to children!

Pets that want to catch a fly
3 books

In my opinion "When the Fly Flew in..." was a great book. The style of writing that the author used was not only very engaging but also organized, flowing well throughout. For example, the beginning of the book started with "In a quiet room a dreaming dog wagged his tail." This piece of text was later related to the ending of the story through this quote, "In a quiet room a dog twitched his tail as he dreamed about flies." Through this method of writing the author was able to make me, the reader, think back to the beginning of the story before the fly entered the room.Thus, creating a well-developed and organized writing style. In addition, I also enjoyed the fun descriptive language used throughout the book. A great example of this is when the cat is chasing the fly, "The fly zigged. The cat zagged. The fly zagged. The cat zigged." Although the sentences were short and to the point, I felt that they entertained me through the use of words I don't hear everyday. One more thing that makes this book great is the plot. The beginning of the book starts with a reason why a child can't clean the room, "'I can't clean my room," a child whispered to his mother. "All the animals are sleeping. I'll clean it later.'" Later on, after the fly buzzed around the room and the animals chased it, the book ended with, "The fly flew out...and the room was clean." This helped create a fun plot, for when the fly buzzed around and the animals chased it they didn't make more of a mess but instead cleaned the entire room. I think that the 'big idea' of this story is to make a connection to the reader about an experience they may have had being bothered by a fly or having one of the pets from the story. I also think that it was designed to make the reader question and think about what was happening throughout the story. It seemed like the animals made a mess yet the book ended saying that the room was clean. This book gives readers a chance to let their imagination run wild. ( )

This was a clever modern fantasy to read. It was neat to read about the different effects that the fly had on the creatures in the house. I could use this in my classroom to talk about animals or to talk about how we can have a positive or negative effect on others.

When the fly flew in the room all the animals in the room tried to catch it and made a big mess and then the fly just flew out. Good for grades Kindergarden - 3rd. I would use this book in my classroom because it shows that if you would have just left things the way they were they would have been ok.