Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

The story follows a cynical girl named Flora Belle Buckman who saves a squirrel she names Ulysses after he is sucked up into a vacuum cleaner. The accident grants Ulysses superpowers and they embark on an illuminated adventure. Winner of the 2014 Newbery Medal, this genre-breaking novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo features a cynic meeting an unlikely superhero in a tale filled with unanticipated occurrences. It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.