Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
By Kate DiCamillo
Hi! Have you ever dreamed of meeting a super hero? Well, Flora has! She dreams of it all the time. She relates it to her favorite comic book, The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto! Flora’s parents are divorced. Flora’s mother believes in romance and writes romance books all the time. Flora’s father loves reading the comics out loud to her, but he had gotten quieter after they divorced. Flora mostly lived with her mother now, but one day a vacuum cleaner changed Flora’s life forever!
This vacuum cleaner was given to Tootie Tickham on her birthday. Tootie is Flora’s next door neighbor. Her husband had gotten it for her, and he had told her to take the vacuum cleaner outside. That’s where the vacuum cleaner (wait for it… wait for it…) vacuumed a squirrel! This vacuum cleaner gave the squirrel (which Flora named Ulysses) superpowers! Once Flora and Tootie took Ulysses out of the vacuum cleaner, he picked up the vacuum cleaner with one hand. Flora took him home. Tootie went back to her house. Once Flora got home, she snuck Ulysses up to her room. There, she introduced him to Incandesto. (Incandesto is the super hero from the comic book.)
The next morning was a Saturday. This was when Flora’s father came to visit her. The doorbell rang loudly one morning. But, it wasn’t Flora’s father – it was Tootie. Tootie asked Flora about the squirrel. She told her that he was alright, and then Tootie introduced Flora to her grandson, William Spiver. William Spiver was temporarily blind. He liked Flora and everyone could see it, but Flora didn’t really like him. He was annoying to her. When Flora came back inside, her mother caught her with the squirrel. When Flora’s father finally showed up, she told him to take the squirrel, put him in a sack, and kill him with a shovel, for her mother did not like things that could possibly have rabies or fleas or any other sort of unruly thing.
Will Ulysses survive the wrath of Flora’s mother? Or will he be killed by Flora’s father in a sack with a shovel? As I always say, read the book to find out!
I recommend this book to readers who love excitement and action, and with characters you’ll fall in love with at the first word (in our case, not "at first sight").
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor):
There was one big scary part in this story.
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor):
The only yucky-lovey stuff in this book was that William Spiver clearly liked Flora.
I give this book 5 wands.
I absolutely loved this book! It was a thrilling, thrilling story! This next part I’m going to say to you has something to do with the book. If you want to see another thing about it, you should search Kate DiCamillo’s Newberry speech on Flora and Ulysses. It is amazing!
