A review by protoman21
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

4.0

Although I enjoyed this book, I couldn't help but feel like the Newbery Award people were a bit lazy and just said, "Eh, just give it to DiCamillo again." Flora, a self proclaimed cynic, could only be called a cynic by a rainbow because though she tries to not hope for things, she always finds a way to do it anyway. Her superhero obsession flavors her view of the world and her thoughts and words, which was fun for me, being a superhero fan myself. The Ulysses chapters were handled very well with short glances into his new existence. I feel like longer chapters from his perspective wouldn't have worked, so DiCamillo made a wise choice in keeping them short and sweet. Her mom played an excellent villain and her dad was a very loveable figure. William Spiver could have been annoying with his quirkiness, and he came close at times, but overall ended up as a positive addition to the novel. If I didn't read this knowing it was the Newbery winner, I probably would have been perfectly happy and moved on, but because I had a deeper more profound experience with DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux, I left this one a bit disappointed.