Flora & Ulysses - book review

Flora & Ulysses by Kate Di Camillo is quirky, imaginative and hilarious! It is a chapter book with illustrations and occasional cartoon strip pages that perfectly capture the story and characters. The story begins with Mrs Tootie Tickham, who inadvertently vacuums up a squirrel while vacuuming her lawn! Like many superhero stories, a strange happening is required for the superpowers to come into being. In the case of Ulysses, the squirrel, he is transformed at this moment. Self-professed ‘child cynic’, Flora saves him and names him after the Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 2000X.

Flora, who reads comics like “The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!” and its companion, “Terrible Things Can Happen to You!” – feels well equipped to understand that the rescued squirrel is developing superpowers. He types poetry, can fly and is strong enough to lift the vacuum cleaner with one paw. Flora lives with her mother, a self-absorbed romance writer, and in her struggle to deal with her parent’s divorce, she has become cynical.

Every superhero needs an arch-nemesis, and Ulysses’ turns out to be someone close to home. Flora befriends (begrudgingly), Tootie’s great-nephew, an eleven-year-old boy who is precociously intelligent and temporarily blind due to earlier trauma. Through a series of hilarious scenes, Ulysses’ powers are revealed, his nemesis tries to have him ‘dealt with’, and his friends need to rescue him.

There is a terrifying cat named Mr Klaus, a doctor of Philosophy called Dr Meescham, a nosy waitress at Do-Nut world and Flora’s Dad, who introduces himself whenever he enters a room. My favourite character is Ulysses, who sniffs his tail, craves food and is vividly squirrel-like – yet somehow, anthropomorphic. He types a poem to Flora which reads:

I love your round head,

the brilliant green,

the watching blue,

the letters,

this world, you.

I am very, very hungry. [p. 65]

Some of the child characters use unique words like “malfeasance, capacious, obfuscation”. This rich language adds a delicious texture to the story. By including a few words that children may not know, word-power is added, but meaning is not lost. The story is accessible to young readers, aided by the delightful illustrations by K.G. Campbell.

I often find Di Camillo’s characters to be eccentric, or at least utterly unique, and well-drawn. However, unlike some of her more serious work (The Tale of Desperaux) and (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane), Flora and Ulysses is a light-hearted rollicking joy. Yet there are deeper themes, and they pack a rewarding emotional ending.

I recommend this book to 8 to 12-year-olds. It would also make a good read-aloud for teachers from about year 3 upwards.

I have recently learnt that Disney + have produced a film. I will post a trailer soon. It looks like an exciting adventure; however, I encourage you to read the book and enjoy Di Camillo’s wonderful wordplay and characterisation first. I am disappointed to see that Flora has long hair in the film, as the tomboyish character in the book wears her hair short and it suits her unique personality. Nevertheless, I’m sure the film will encourage WPS children to read the book which is great. I think it is launching on 19th Feb.

We have one copy of the book at school, but you can ask me to place a reserve for you.