Kate DiCamillo: Flora and Ulysses (Walker Books 2014)
It all started with a vacuum cleaner. One late summer afternoon, Flora was reading her favorite comic book in her room – contrary to her promise to her mother that she would “work to turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics and toward the bright light of true literature”. Her mother is a writer, she writes romance novels – Flora therefore says she should not say anything about “idiotic high jinks”. Returning to the vacuum cleaner – the device in question sucks up a squirrel, which is only saved by Flora’s intervention, but the accident does not pass without consequences: the squirrel gains superpowers. This is the beginning of a special story that will have a great impact not only on Flora’s life, but also on the lives of her family and friends.
I have never read anything like this story. The description of the events is playful, but at the same time poetic. We can not only read an adventurous story, but also get to know the deepest thoughts of the characters. The main message of the book is to realize how beautiful the world is and how valuable the people around us are. Even if we have superpowers, the most important things in life are love and faith.
Kate DiCamillo is an American author who writes for both children and adults and is proud to call herself a storyteller. She was born in Pennsylvania, raised in Florida, and currently lives in Minnesota. She has won the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious American children’s book award, twice, Flora and Ulysses is one of them.
