 |
 |
January 05, 2015
I have to say it, right here, sentence one of paragraph one, I did not LOVE-LOVE this book. And I’m fairly shocked by that, to be quite honest. My daughter and I thought The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (also by Miss DiCamillo) was spectacular. If you haven’t read that one yet, get on it - immediately! (I don’t have a KJD review to point you to because we finished that one before I started doing this. So....here's a quick write-up: it’s outstanding and you’ll love it!) Anyways, thanks to Edward Tulane and the fact that I know nearly all of Miss DiCamillo's other titles, including Winn-Dixie and Despereaux, are also excellent, highly-popular books, I was very much looking forward to Flora & Ulysses.
As I wrote at the top, it didn’t knock me out, as I expected, but the book was certainly not disappointing. The storyline is fairly outrageous and very appealing; a squirrel gets sucked up by an out of control vacuum and after some TLC from a young girl, the little critter develops human-like intelligence and super powers, becoming the mighty Ulysses of the story. Flora, the young girl, adopts Ulysses and together they sort of, kind of have an adventure. This is where I was hoping for more. I expected a bigger, chunkier, more outlandish set of increasingly wild happenings. Instead, the story had a lot of character interaction and witty dialogue, with just a few bits of suspense and danger sprinkled in.
Appearance-wise, Flora & Ulysses is a beautifully designed book that’s somewhat of a blend between a comic book and a traditional novel. But there’s much more normal book part than comic part, so it’s not like a Big Nate or Diary of a Wimpy Kid type of experience. Both my 8y/o and I really liked the comic book sections which always focused on Ulysses' actions. Those unique, imaginative and whimsical parts were definitely our favorites. This blend in styles, combining a traditional novel with a few comic book inserts, worked excellently for this story. And K.G. Campbell’s illustrations are superb.
Here’s some sample text we particularly enjoyed:
“Watch out!” she (Flora) shouted. “You’re going to vacuum up that squirrel!”
She said the words, and then she had a strange moment of seeing them, hanging there over her head...
...There is just no predicting what kind of sentences you might say, thought Flora. For instance, who would ever think you would shout, “You're going to vacuum up that squirrel!”?
A few sentences later, Flora utters one of her clever catch phrases:
“This malfeasance must be stopped,” said Flora in a deep and superheroic voice.
Flora often uses big, exotic, meaningful words which is cool. And the young reader can always pick up their meaning from the context so the story moves along nice and smoothly. Another neat thing about Flora is she's very practical and realistic about the world. She constantly repeats some variation of the phrase "Observe, don't hope", meaning she endeavors to gather information by paying attention to what's going on and not distracting herself with her own wants or needs. However, this practice is slowly broken down during the story as Ulysses shows her that there ARE unexplainable, fantastic things that happen in life and it's OK to hope for the extraordinary.
Overall, Flora & Ulysses is very well-written (of course, Miss Dicamillo is a brilliant author) with fun, entertaining characters who have lots of interesting interaction. There's not quite enough crazy adventure for me though, so maybe boys won't dig it as much if they are more into big action stuff like Star Wars, Hobbit, etc. But then again, there's that superhero squirrel, so who knows! It's completely safe for youngsters to read and I’d say mostly girls will like this one best since they will enjoy Flora’s spunk and quirkiness.
I will mention too that Flora & Ulysses won the Newbery Medal as the best book of 2013 so there’s that. If you or any young readers you know liked Miss DiCamillo’s other books, certainly check this one out. And make sure to read Edward Tulane too!
Happy Reading!
As I wrote at the top, it didn’t knock me out, as I expected, but the book was certainly not disappointing. The storyline is fairly outrageous and very appealing; a squirrel gets sucked up by an out of control vacuum and after some TLC from a young girl, the little critter develops human-like intelligence and super powers, becoming the mighty Ulysses of the story. Flora, the young girl, adopts Ulysses and together they sort of, kind of have an adventure. This is where I was hoping for more. I expected a bigger, chunkier, more outlandish set of increasingly wild happenings. Instead, the story had a lot of character interaction and witty dialogue, with just a few bits of suspense and danger sprinkled in.
Appearance-wise, Flora & Ulysses is a beautifully designed book that’s somewhat of a blend between a comic book and a traditional novel. But there’s much more normal book part than comic part, so it’s not like a Big Nate or Diary of a Wimpy Kid type of experience. Both my 8y/o and I really liked the comic book sections which always focused on Ulysses' actions. Those unique, imaginative and whimsical parts were definitely our favorites. This blend in styles, combining a traditional novel with a few comic book inserts, worked excellently for this story. And K.G. Campbell’s illustrations are superb.
Here’s some sample text we particularly enjoyed:
“Watch out!” she (Flora) shouted. “You’re going to vacuum up that squirrel!”
She said the words, and then she had a strange moment of seeing them, hanging there over her head...
...There is just no predicting what kind of sentences you might say, thought Flora. For instance, who would ever think you would shout, “You're going to vacuum up that squirrel!”?
A few sentences later, Flora utters one of her clever catch phrases:
“This malfeasance must be stopped,” said Flora in a deep and superheroic voice.
Flora often uses big, exotic, meaningful words which is cool. And the young reader can always pick up their meaning from the context so the story moves along nice and smoothly. Another neat thing about Flora is she's very practical and realistic about the world. She constantly repeats some variation of the phrase "Observe, don't hope", meaning she endeavors to gather information by paying attention to what's going on and not distracting herself with her own wants or needs. However, this practice is slowly broken down during the story as Ulysses shows her that there ARE unexplainable, fantastic things that happen in life and it's OK to hope for the extraordinary.
Overall, Flora & Ulysses is very well-written (of course, Miss Dicamillo is a brilliant author) with fun, entertaining characters who have lots of interesting interaction. There's not quite enough crazy adventure for me though, so maybe boys won't dig it as much if they are more into big action stuff like Star Wars, Hobbit, etc. But then again, there's that superhero squirrel, so who knows! It's completely safe for youngsters to read and I’d say mostly girls will like this one best since they will enjoy Flora’s spunk and quirkiness.
I will mention too that Flora & Ulysses won the Newbery Medal as the best book of 2013 so there’s that. If you or any young readers you know liked Miss DiCamillo’s other books, certainly check this one out. And make sure to read Edward Tulane too!
Happy Reading!