She names the revived rodent Ulysses (the brand of the vacuum that nearly caused his demise), deems him a superhero, and launches the story with regular excerpts from her favorite comic book, The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto. When the furless squirrel is extracted from the machine, Flora performs a miniature CPR rescue by pressing on his small chest. This is the same format that was first seen in Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and readers will need to read the graphics as part of the story.Īccording to the Flora and Ulysses book trailer, “Flora and Ulysses conquer all in a genre-bending, villain-vanquishing, darkness-eradicating adventure of the comic kind.” 2įlora, whose summer reading promise to her novel-writing mother was to “work to turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics and toward the bright light of true literature,” 3 finds her word put to the test when neighbor Tootie Tickham accidently vacuums up a squirrel in the backyard. 1Ĭandlewick Press has incorporated the novel-plus-graphic novel format into Flora and Ulysses.

The ALA honored DiCamillo again in 2014 by naming Flora and Ulysses the winner of the 2014 Newbery Award.

Her name already appears on the Newbery Award list for Because of Winn Dixie, a 2001 Newbery Honor book, and The Tale of Desperaux, the 2004 Newbery Award winner. Kate DiCamillo is an award-winning author whose published works include picture books, early chapter books, and novels that often feature humorous stories about childhood friendships. (Note: It is not the purpose of this review to draw conclusions for the reader but rather to focus on literary elements and topics of critical importance for the Christian School Solutions constituency.)

Flora and ulysses