Flora and Ulysses:The Illustrated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo. Candlewick, 2013. (Children's fiction) (Advanced Readers' Copy)Holy baguma! What a tale! When Mrs. Tickham vacuums up a squirrel, it leads to chaos, friendship, and new adventures. Flora Belle Buckham is a self described "cynic", a reader and an animal lover who is quite familiar with Terrible Things Can Happen to You! and a superhero called Incandesto. Ulysses, the squirrel, is certainly the opposite of the first and definitely a hero in his own right. He can type, write poetry, and loves to eat. Flora and Ulysses are just made to become loyal friends. Other characters like the temporarily blind William Spiver, the jelly sandwich making Dr. Meescham, Maryann the Sheperdess lamp, neighbor Tootie Tickham, and Flora's own "unique" parents provide laughs and mayhem. The morale? Life is good. Life is funny. Choose joy in your own life.
Master of the children's novel, Kate DiCamillo always features quirky characters, strange and funny action, and diverse story threads that she manages to wind together by the end of her tales. Although Candlewick is touting this new novel as "an exciting new format--a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences as well as full-page illustrations", young readers will have no trouble recognizing favorite elements of other favorite books. When an adult friend asked about this book, I described it to her as "a little squirrely" and I think the author would laugh and agree!
