Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo- Book Review

 

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo- Book Review

Author: Kate DiCamillo

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publish Date: 2013

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.

**This book review may contain spoilers**

I guess I'm continuing to read Newbery Award novels again. The last time I picked up this book was in sixth grade, and the last time I saw it mentioned was in a Mr. Lemoncello series book by Chris Grabenstein when I was in eighth grade (I remember a kid had to take a hover ladder to get this book out from a shelf.) I hadn't thought of this book ever since, and it was refreshing to read it again.

Flora & Ulysses is centered around Flora, a self-proclaimed cynic who likes superhero comics. One day, her neighbor accidentally vacuums up a squirrel, which Flora saves. The squirrel gains superpowers-- super strength, flight, understanding human speech, and ability to write poetry-- and Flora names it Ulysses, immediately befriending it. Through her small adventures with Ulysses, moving around with her neighbors and William Spiver, her 'antagonist' mother comes to understand Flora's bond with Ulysses and Flora comes to realize that she is truly loved. 

One of the things I liked about this novel is that it's aimed for an elementary school audience, but it has lots of sophisticated vocabulary in it-- readers repeatedly encounter words such as malfeasance, capacious, cynic, surreptitious, junctures, preternaturally, and so on. It's a great way to introduce new words to younger readers, and there are a lot of context clues to help the reader through.

Additionally, all of the characters in this book are quirky and very unique-- obviously we've got Ulysses the superhero squirrel and Flora the cynic who loves comic book superheroes, but others such as Mrs Tickham and William Spiver and Flora's mother also learn important-- yet different-- lessons throughout Flora's adventures. The hybrid text/comic style of the book worked especially well in this scenario, since Flora loves comic books and this passion is reflected in the layout of the book itself. It was interesting to see how some important plot points were portrayed as comics-- it was great to visualize the scenes in a cinematic way, as if I was watching a movie, but I also missed the chapter-ending short sentences. Usually in a normal book (or at least the fiction books I've been reading these days), a chapter would end with a strong line/short sentence that would act as a sort of cliffhanger or concluding comment; however, the comic format took away the 'short' aspect in the short chapter-ending sentences. 

There was one other part that I didn't enjoy very much in this book-- namely, the romance/affection storyline between Flora and William Spiver felt too rushed and forced. William Spiver is initially introduced as a weird smartass-type of boy, knowing too much useless facts and wearing dark glasses in self-proclaimed temporary blindness. Flora's first interaction with him doesn't go very well, with him taking Flora's mom's side over Flora's, but suddenly after two interactions, we see that Flora starts to develop attraction for William Spiver, with no explanation. Then a few brief chapters later, they like each other a little more, and by the end of the book they're holding hands. The entire arc felt too rapid and forced-- William Spiver hadn't changed very much until after his glasses came off, and even then he was already holding hands with Flora. 

Overall, Flora & Ulysses was a greatly entertaining novel aimed toward younger audiences (that's what the Newbery Prize is for anyway). It's for sure an unorthodox book, with quirky characters and a comic-interspersed plot and a superhero-loving, natural-born cynic whose best friends are a superhero squirrel and weird temporarily blind boy. It also has great lessons on family, how parents love their children no matter how they express (or fail to express) it. Although the forced romance felt wrong to me, I feel this book does deserve the Newbery medal.

Rating: I would give this a 3.5/5. I would recommend this book for anyone 4th grade or up.