I'm really starting to like the month of March, I mean it is full of Middle Grade reading right? Today, I am participating in a MG kickoff Read a Thon going on from Midnight March 1, 2014 to Midnight March 2, 2014. More information can be found over here.
My first pick was this little gem. Flora Belle Buckman is a self proclaimed superhero comic book reading cynic who happens to witness the untimely demise of a squirrel who's sucked up by a vacuum cleaner gone rogue. Being the avid comic book reader she is, Flora has read every Terrible Things Can Happen To You comic and performs CPR on the squirrel. Flora's kind act helps Ulysses recover in new ways, ones that he or Flora never anticipated. I loved reading and sharing The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo with my child and Flora and Ulysses brings back some of those wonderful memories. DiCamillo really knows how to pull at your heart strings, I even had tears at the beautiful touching poem at the end. There was plenty of humor, and characters that still sit with me especially Ulysses the squirrel, I adored how Ulysses kept his squirrel characteristics by constant thoughts about food and being hungry, while also finding another means to communicate with Flora (a typewriter no less). I also really liked William Spiver, who suffers from a "temporary blindness induced by trauma" and who insists on calling Flora, Flora Belle. The black and white comic illustrations by K.G. Campbell were very nicely done and fell in line with Flora's love of comic books. I especially loved the scenes with Ulysses flying through the air. Favorite line is "She had a superhero under her pajamas. She didn't have to listen to her mother, or anybody else for that matter. A new day was dawning, a girl-with-a-superhero kind of day." My review copy was from the library.
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