Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

Since the Snowpocalypse has hit my city in North Carolina (took four hours to get home), I had some downtime today to read some books. This is the Newberry Award winner for 2014 and I was originally 4^th on the waitlist, but it went by so quickly that the book plopped into my hands and I had to read it as quickly as possible. There were more people waiting of course.

Holy unanticipated occurrences! A cynic meets an unlikely superhero in a genre-breaking new novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo. 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.

First off, the images done by KG Campbell were so cute and perfect for the book. Flora and Ulysses were drawn perfect to what I thought they would be and Flora was so adorable. If I have a daughter, I would want her to be like Flora. Cynical, rational, loves comic books; she would fit perfectly with me and my husband.

Secondly, the story was incredibly sweet. Flora and Ulysses support one another and love each other like I figure a pet and an owner would if they could talk to one another.  I also like that Flora grows as a character to include more friends in her life. Kind of gives me hope for my literary fictional daughter to have a great life with more friends.

I will say that I was not a fan of the mother, but then again she is Ulysses’ arch-nemesis. It was hard to even tell the fact that she loved her daughter until the end. I’m with you Flora, go live with Dad. The side characters were pretty funny, but this book is really more about Flora becoming a believer and geting over being a cynic.

I highly recommend this book for reluctant readers of all ages. The graphics feel like a comic book, but Flora and Ulysses is not even close to a graphic novel so parents can rejoice when their kids want to read it.

Audiobook Awesomeness: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

It feels like an eternity since I last wrote a post about an audiobook doesn’t it? And yet, I have listened to so many things since Ender’s Game. Well at least attempted to listen to anyway. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson was way too long as it took over a month to get only halfway through it (sorry honey it ain’t happenin).  I did listen to Expats by Chris Pavone which was an intriguing spy novel, but not my absolute favorite. Then there was Beauty Queens by Libba Bray which was just so entertaining and Libba Bray even did the narration herself.  At some point I will get around to writing a post about that audiobook, but for now I would like to discuss A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

Summary via goodreads. It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract".

Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their  journey through space? 

As I pointed out in my last post, this was my husband’s favorite chapter book as a child. Moreover since listening to Cryptonomicon was a complete failure, I decided that A Wrinkle in Time would be a doable replacement.

This Newberry winner should have been a must–read on my list, but I kept putting it off and I just could not get into the book.  It’s not that I am not into science fiction because I am! I love shows like The X-Files, Fringe, Chuck.  I think my original problem was that this book felt like a children’s book which has lots of whimsy and unimaginative names like Beast, or Mrs. Who, or the Man with Red Eyes.  So as I am reading, I just felt it wasn’t descriptive enough to get into.

Then, I thought, what an opportunity to use an audiobook as a medium for reluctant reading. This was a great idea and now I can proudly say that I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time.

I liked it as the science is not too heavy-handed nor is it too simple for adults and children alike. The story itself is action-packed, not too whimsical like I originally thought, and has an uplifting ending. Although I felt Meg was a little whiny in some cases, her frustration with the adults in the story is understandable and could even be relatable for some tweens.

I was so surprised that Madeleine L’Engle herself did the narration for the audiobook. I hope more authors do this as I find it interesting to see how they read their own work. It gives the audience, I think, an accurate insight into the author’s vision.

That’s all for now peeps! I am currently working on writing a few posts and reading some more books. Like always, I am backed up.