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Flora & Ulysses, Kate DiCamillo. The crazy adventures for little,
cynical Flora begin when her next door neighbor, Tootie Tickham, receives a
Ulysses Super Suction, Multi-Terrain 2000X vacuum cleaner for her birthday and
it sucks up a hungry, unassuming squirrel. Quick thinking from her go to comic
book, The Illuminated Adventures of the
Amazing Incandesto, she gives the squirrel CPR and names him Ulysses. Their
friendship begins. Flora’s detached,
divorced, cigarette smoking, romance novelist mother, Phyllis, finds her
daughter to be too emotionally attached to the squirrel. She demands George,
Flora’s father, to capture the “diseased” squirrel, hit him over the head and
bury him, but when he won’t do it, Phyllis kidnaps him herself. Flora, Tootie
and William Spiver (Tootie’s great nephew) set out to stop her mother, using
her shepherdess lamp, named Mary Ann, as hostage whom Flora’s mother prefers
over her.
The zaniness of the
story would make this Newbery winner a fun read aloud. It could also be suggested
for unmotivated, yet capable readers because of the many comic like
illustrations. Kate DiCamillo also wrote The
Tale of Despereaux, Because of
Winn-Dixie and The Miraculous Journey
of Edward Tulane, all award winning books.
