Thursday, July 31, 2014

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo



What a fun book to read.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's a light children's book about a flying, superhero squirrel and his friend, Flora.  The characters are all really charming.  I loved them all -- all round and evolving.  I can imagine reading this with Callie one day.  It was fun but also touches on deeper issues in a very approachable way for children.  Friendship.  Family.  Love.  Courage.  Divorce.  Identity.  Self-esteem.  Fear.  Persistence.  Dedication.  Loyalty.  

One thing I loved was the format of the book.  Flora narrates most of the book, however occassionally we get a chapter from the squirrel.  (And the chapters are extremely short so you feel like you're accomplishing a lot by sitting down and reading 5 chapters!)  Every now and then, you get the story in a comic strip style as well.  It changes up the text a bit, giving good variety, but also having these tid bits of illustration.  It's so well done.
 

It wasn't until the end of the book when I realized the author was Kate DiCamillo (I just got it on my kindle without too much investigation) -- who wrote Because of Winn Dixie, which I also loved reading last year.  She's a skilled children's chapter book author.  If these 2 books of hers that I've read are an indication of how great her other books are...I love her.

1 comment:

Christine said...

I love Kate DiCamillo and haven't seen this book of hers! My girls LOVE the Mercy Watson series by her. My 7 year old reads them to me and they are so fun--about a pig named Mercy Watson who is treated like a child--and all of her adventures. Also, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is awesome. I read that one to my 7 year old and we both loved it. :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails