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Module 4: Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo


Genre:
Fantasy/ Newbery Winner

Book Summary:
Flora is an imaginative girl who loves her comics.  Unfortunately, her mother, a romance novelist, is not a fan of Flora's passion.  Tensions are already high because of the recent split between Flora's mother and father, but when Flora brings home a squirrel she rescues from the neighbor's vacuum cleaner, her house becomes a battle field.  With the help of her father, her neighbor, and a new friend, Flora embarks on an adventure to prove to her mother that Ulysses, the squirrel, is special enough to keep around (and so is she).

DiCamillo, K., & Campbell, K. G. (2013). Flora & Ulysses: The illuminated adventures (1st ed.). Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press.

Impressions:
Flora & Ulysses is a fun read, but kind of hard to categorize.  Flora has issues many readers can relate to, but her desire to see the world as an extension of her comic books throws things a little over the top sometimes.  The combination of traditional chapters interspersed with comics will be appealing to many middle grade readers.  In the end, it's hard not to fall in love with a typing squirrel and his girl.

Professional Review:
"When a cynical comic-book fanatic discovers her own superhero, life becomes wonderfully supercharged.
Despite the contract her mother made her sign to “turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics,” 10-year-old Flora avidly follows her favorite superhero’s adventures. Flora’s mother writes romance novels and seems more in love with her books than with her lonely ex-husband or equally lonely daughter. When a neighbor accidentally vacuums a squirrel into a Ulysses 2000X vacuum cleaner, Flora resuscitates him into a “changed squirrel,” able to lift the 2000X with a single paw. Immediately assuming he’s a superhero, Flora names the squirrel “Ulysses” and believes together they will “[shed] light into the darkest corners of the universe.” Able to understand Flora, type, compose poetry and fly, the transformed Ulysses indeed exhibits superpowers, but he confronts his “arch-nemesis" when Flora’s mother tries to terminate him, triggering a chain of events where Ulysses becomes a real superhero. The very witty text and droll, comic-book–style black-and-white illustrations perfectly relay the all-too-hilarious adventures of Flora, Ulysses and a cast of eccentric characters who learn to believe in the impossible and have “capacious” hearts.
Original, touching and oh-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl. (Fantasy. 8-12)"
Kirkus (2013). [Review for the book Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo].   Retrieved https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kate-dicamillo/flora-ulysses/

Library Uses:
Flora & Ulysses could be used with middle grade readers to talk about the comic format.  Lots of information has to be told in a more concise way.  Allowing students to create a story using Flora & Ulysses as a mentor text would be a great introduction into this writing style and talking about the visual literacy and design skills that must accompany it.

Readalikes:
Clara Humble and the Not-So-Super Powers by Anna Humphrey
Squirrel in the House by Vivian Vande Velde
Hamstersaurus Rex vs. Squirrel Kong by Tom O'Donnell

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