Flora and Ulysses: 2014 Newbery Award

The beginning of March 2014 I started a new undertaking: reading every single Newbery Medal Winner book. A number of them I have read in the past, but I am reading them with fresh eyes,and reviewing them for others. I am not reading them in order, as some will require some effort on my part to find them all.  Want to keep track of which books I read?  Check them out at Confessions of a Wannabe Reader!

Cover of the book - Used for illustration purposes only under the fair use clause

Flora Belle Buckman: The Cynic

"I promise to always turn back toward you."

Comic-book loving Flora Buckman, the only way to cope with her distant mother and her depressed father is to be cynical.  When a squirrel is sucked up into a neighbor's runaway vacuum, Flora comes to his rescue and brings the squirrel back to life. She is then amazed to find that the incident has left the squirrel with super hero powers of flight and super-strength, just like in her beloved comic books.  She names him Ulysses and takes him with her.  With the help of Ulysses, the weird boy next door named William Spiver, and a series of zany events, Flora learns to hope and love again and teaches those around her to do the same.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures was an interesting read for me.  The story is fantastic in nature, being a story about a super-hero squirrel.  The zaniness of the story kept me enthralled until the end of the book.  Having already read Kate DiCamillo's first Newbery Award book The Tale of Despereaux and her book Because of Winn-Dixie, I was used to her writing style, which flows freely and reads easily.

The theme of this book is love, family love in particular.  Flora has tried to stop loving those around her because it appears those around her have stopped loving her with all of their heart.  Yet when she saves Ulysses, a little of the cynical wall that she has built up around her heart starts to melt.  Throughout the adventures the tow have, they touch the lives around them, from Flora's parents, to William Spiver and his great-aunt, to the neighbor of her father's.  The story twists and turns and even has an arch-nemesis. Overall, it is a fun read with an ending that seems to mean good things to come for our superhero and his sidekick.

The Tale of Despereaux : 2004 Newbery Award

I have started a new undertaking: reading every single Newbery Medal Winner book.  A number of them I have read in the past, but I am reading them with fresh eyes,and reviewing them for others. I am not reading them in order, as some will require some effort on my part to find them all.  Want to keep track of which books I read?  Check them out at Confessions of a Wannabe Reader!

Cover of the book - The image is used for identification purposes only under the fair use clause.

Despereaux Tilling: the Mousy Rule-Breaker

"Once upon a time, there was a mouse who was very small...... And there was a beautiful human princess whose name was Pea."

Thus is the tale of a lowly mouse, the littlest and last of a family of mice living in a castle,who breaks the rules of the mouse to become a legend of his own making.  The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread was written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering.  It won the Newbery Medal in 2004.  It follows the story of Despereaux Tilling as he learns to love reading books instead of the paper they are on.  Music and light dazzle and amaze him, feeding him better than ordinary food.  Through this thirst for knowledge, he meets and falls in love with the human princess of the castle, Princess Pea.  Later, he must rescue her when evil comes up from the dungeons in the form of a light-loving rat named Chiaroscuro and his dim-witted accomplice, a human serving-maid by the name of Miggory Sow.

The book is an easy read, full of many descriptive passages and divided into four parts.  The story line echoed of themes and plot devices that were used in George MacDonald's books, The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie.  Similar themes and devices include; a humble and unlikely hero, evil that thrives in darkness, music and light being magical, forgiveness, and a resolution that leaves everyone feeling good about themselves.   The story reminded me also of Brian Jacques' Redwall series due to the use of animal characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this story, though the plot was somewhat predictable and the happily ever after ending reminded me that this is indeed a children's book.