Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

 

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

 

Bibliography: DiCamillo, Kate, and K. G. Campbell. 2013. Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.

ISBN: 9780763660406

Plot Summary: Ten year old Flora, a self- proclaimed cynic, is about to have her life changed forever with the help of her neighbor Tootie Tickham, her brand new Ulysses vacuum, and an innocent squirrel. In a series of events, the squirrel has a mishap with the vacuum, and becomes a superhero that is able to write poetry, understand humans, and essentially change Flora's life forever. This story is fast paced and enjoyable for all readers, exploring the family unit and relationships we all share. By the end of the story you will be fighting for Ulysses the squirrel and Flora's family and friends. Only then do you realize the true value and importance of friends and family.

Critical Analysis: The story Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo is an adventurous story focusing on a squirrel that inhabits superhero talents after being hit/nearly sucked up with a vacuum and explores the bond that families and friends share, while finding oneself and learning to forgive the past after being failed by the people that they love. This story blends realistic contemporary fiction with fantasy. The characters within the story are realistic and the situations surrounding the characters are relatable to all children and adults excluding the main character of Ulysses the superhero squirrel, which causes the book to become a low fantasy novel. The children in the story have been failed by their parents and find refuge in Ulysses the Superhero squirrel. Flora is a self-proclaimed cynic, but as the story progresses we are able to understand and realize that she is not a cynic, but a young girl who feels that her mother doesn’t love her, but loves a lamp that she calls Mary Ann. However, by the end of the story, she realizes that she is loved and is able to accept her new reality. This is a also a similar situation with William Spiver, the other child depicted in the story, who has been failed by his mother, is recently remarried, and feels that his mother no longer loves him when he gets dropped off at his great aunt's house and goes through a spat of temporary blindness. As the reader learns about these characters, they are immediately able to sympathize and care about the characters. The language within the text is very rich, and is believable for a ten year old child with a higher level vocabulary. The text also reflects the way children talk and interact at that age level, and the dialogue between the characters is important and conveys the many emotions that the characters feel. The entire plot seems plausible and true to life and is presented in a logical order. It is creative and keeps the reader's attention throughout the entire book. The story does contain a climax and the plot has many unexpected twists and turns. The setting is within a contemporary time period that seems familiar to readers, is believable, and includes vivid details. The descriptions are accurate and the overall story transcends the setting with the situations being universal. The theme marks Flora growing up and learning to forgive her mother so that she can move on with her life. Also, the theme of family ties and bonds and leaning to forgive runs strong throughout the text, which in the end leave us with hope for the young characters.  The style of the text is reflective of DiCamillo’s other stories with her use of rich vocabulary and her ability to create situations within her books that pull on heartstrings and give us hope for the future. The dialogue between characters is natural and believable with a consistent use of language that is reminiscent of the characters' ages. Within the text, there is also a healthy balance of gender roles and the text avoids stereotyping. The text presents real people with real problems that many families face in broken homes. In all, the text is written wonderfully in an easy to read format and is relatable to students. It is a great book for the classroom library.

Awards Received:

·         Winner of the 2014 Newberry Medal

·         Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee

·         National Book Award Longlist

Review Excerpts:

·         Booklist Starred Review - Newbery-winner DiCamillo is a master storyteller not just because she creates characters who dance off the pages and plots, whether epic or small, that never fails to engage and delight readers. Her biggest strength is exposing the truths that open and heal the human heart. She believes in possibilities and forgiveness and teaches her audience that the salt of life can be cut with the right measure of love.

·         Kirkus Starred Review - Original, touching and oh-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl.

·         School Library Journal Starred Review - Rife with marvelously rich vocabulary reminiscent of the early superhero era (e.g., "Holy unanticipated occurrences!") and amusing glimpses at the world from the point of view of Ulysses the supersquirrel, this book will appeal to a broad audience of sophisticated readers. There are plenty of action sequences, but the novel primarily dwells in the realm of sensitive, hopeful, and quietly philosophical literature.

·         Publishers Weekly Starred Review - Despite supremely quirky characters and dialogue worthy of an SAT prep class, there’s real emotion at the heart of this story involving two kids who have been failed by the most important people in their lives: their parents.

·         From School Library Journal - Gr 4-6–Flora, obsessed with superhero comics, immediately recognizes and gives her wholehearted support to a squirrel that, after a near-fatal brush with a vacuum cleaner, develops the ability to fly and type poetry. The 10-year-old hides her new friend from the certain disapproval of her self-absorbed, romance-writer mother, but it is on the woman's typewriter that Ulysses pours out his creations. Like DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant (Candlewick, 2009), this touching piece of magical realism unfolds with increasing urgency over a mere few days and brings its somewhat caricatured, old-fashioned characters together into what becomes a supportive community for all. Campbell's rounded and gentle soft-penciled illustrations, at times in the form of panel art furthering the action, wonderfully match and add to the sweetness of this oddball story. Rife with marvelously rich vocabulary reminiscent of the early superhero era (e.g., “Holy unanticipated occurrences!”) and amusing glimpses at the world from the point of view of Ulysses the supersquirrel, this book will appeal to a broad audience of sophisticated readers. There are plenty of action sequences, but the novel primarily dwells in the realm of sensitive, hopeful, and quietly philosophical literature.–Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School,

 

Connections/Activities:

·         Students can examine the characters within the story and their relationships.

·         Students can write about friendship or create a story in which an animal becomes a superhero like Ulysses.

·         Students can examine the vocabulary of the text, and use context clues to determine meaning.

Selected other texts from Kate DiCamillo:

·         Because of Winn Dixie – 978-0763644321

·         The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – 978-0763643676

·         The Magicians Elephant - 978-0763644109

Related Texts:

·         The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – 978-0061992254

·         Escape from Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein – 978-0375870897

·         Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker - 978-1596437654

Personal Connections: When I saw one of my students reading this book a few weeks ago, and asked how they liked it, and they said they loved it, I knew I had to read it for myself. It is a great book with a lot of relatable themes. The author writes it in an easy to read format that is appealing for all students. I highly recommend this book for grades 3 and up.