Publication Date: September 2013

ISBN: 9780763660406

Pages: 240

Age Group: 8+

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.

This is a graphic novel about a comic reader, Flora Belle, who saves a squirrel. And they go in a mad-cap adventure.  Flora’s mother wants her to “turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics and toward the bright light of true literature.” But this ain’t no ordinary book; It opens with a Hoover gone mad trying to suck up everything in sight.  

DiCamillo wrote a funny book – smart funny. We meet a doctor of philosophy when Flora and Ulysses have a medical emergency! 

The premise may seem far-fetched,  but this is a story about a lonely girl looking for someone to believe in. She gets most of her life advice from comic books and is constantly referencing them. Through her friendship with Ulysses we see her flourish. 

DiCamillo weaved a well written and intriguing story. I’d recommend you to read it, it’s too different not to.