Review: Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures. Written by Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by K.G. Campbell.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Ten-year-old Flora Buckman is obsessed with The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Inclandesto. This is a comic series about an unassuming, mild-mannered janitor who falls into a vat of Inclandesto and becomes the crime-fighting, amazing Inclandesto.

Flora’s dad is a lonely accountant and her mom's a divorced writer of romance novels. Flora, being a natural-born cynic, hates romance.

But when Flora's neighbor, Tootie Tickham, accidentally sucks up a squirrel with her Ulysses 2000x vacuum, Flora’s cynicism is challenged. She proceeds to revive the squirrel by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

And how does the squirrel (aka Ulysses) repay Flora? By becoming a superherosquirrel. Ulysses now has super strength, the ability to fly, and quite a way with poetry. The adventures ensue. 

Together Flora and Ulysses set out to save the world. Or maybe they set out to have a heart-opening experience, sprinkled with a little hope and love.

Kate DiCamillo brings in other adorable characters such as the neighbor’s blind (or is he?) nephew, William Spiver, and a wise insomniac, Dr. Meescham.

Told in third person, with alternating points of view (Flora and Ulysses), this Newberry Medal winner is a delight from beginning to end. And the illustrations are beautiful!

Disclaimer: I love all things Kate DiCamillo. The way she uses joy and a little melancholy to tell a story is amazing.