2014 Newbery winner, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo is the tale of the girl, Flora, who loves her comics, and her divorced father who gave them to her. She also finds herself with her own superhero squirrel who she saved from death-by-vacuum and gained superpowers in the process. Ulysses, the squirrel, and Flora set out to save each other and bring an unlikely band of neighbors and her estranged parents together in the process.
What I liked. Of course the best bit of any Kate DiCamillo stories are her happy, hopeful endings, and along the way, people make their own families out of odd collections of earnest, quirky people. Flora & Ulysses has this in spades.
What was interesting I thought the depiction of Flora’s mother being a writer was a funny little nod to the odd ways of writers. Of course, Flora’s mother is a romance writer, not a middle grade fiction writer, but I thought that Kate DiCamillo might be gently poking fun at herself and writers in general in some of their quirky writer habits. Flora and her father absolutely love graphic novels, especially The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!, so in many ways it is an ode to books and shared love of reading. And many illustrations, some of which are crucial to moving the plot forward, make it a fun book about a graphic novel super hero which itself is part graphic novel. I did listen to a little bit of the audiobook, and it was interesting how they had to describe the pictures verbally. It made me wonder if Kate DiCamillo wrote out those bits, and how in general, she worked with the illustrator K. G. Campbell to make those parts of the book work.
What were some limitations. This is very fussy, but I thought that font that they choose for the magazines: TERRIBLE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU! and The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto! was kind of annoying to read. Probably it was the all caps of the Terrible Things that really felt like someone was yelling in bold in a really loud font. Or maybe that effect was completely intentional!
Similarity to other Newbery winners. In a little girl’s love for a heroic rodent, it reminded me most of Kate DiCamillo’s other Newbery Award winning book The Tale of Despereaux, although much of its tone reminded me more strongly of her other books like some of my very favorites, the trilogy about Beverly, Raymie, and Louisiana. In its use of pictures and intersecting stories, it reminded me most of Criss Cross. In coming to terms with a parents’ divorce, it reminded me most of Dear Mr. Henshaw. Or perhaps in finding unexpected friends while searching for something else it’s more like Walk Two Moons, Missing May, When You Reach Me, or The Higher Power of Lucky. In that signature Kate DiCamillo style, it’s both very quirky and odd, with random details that somehow feel universal in their ability to capture the longings and conflicts of the young human heart.
What it teaches me as a writer. I think one of the things that makes this book, and other Kate DiCamillo books, so fun is that this book is firmly about Flora, but the secondary characters have relationships with each other that are moving and authentic. William Spiver is Flora’s neighbor’s visiting nephew, and he is just as much in need of friends and connections with the people around Flora as Flora is. It reminds me a little of how in comic shows like The Office, sometimes whole storylines would be created just around setting two people together who normally don’t interact. It speaks to the strength of Kate DiCamillo’s characters and the sense that as an author she is just paying attention to the small details of her day and of the way two characters interact in a unique and authentic way.
Have you read Flora & Ulysses? What are your favorite graphic or graphic-hybrid novels?
*Note* This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means if you were to buy a book, I’d get a tiny commission at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting Stories & Thyme!*
