Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2013)

Made me confused. It was like watching a dream I did not understand. ( )

In this fantasy novel, comic book lover Flora becomes friends of Ulysses. Ulysses is the squirrel she saved from the neighbors new vacuum cleaner that went rogue in the backyard. As Ulysses begins to settle in with Flora, he finds Flora's mother's typewriter and begins writing poetry. Now it is up to Flora to introduce him to more poetry and let his creativity flow. It won't be easy with her mother against having a squirrel in the house and feeding into her theory that life is like her favorite comic book. ( )

I liked this book for 3 reasons. First, I liked the characters in the book. The characters were each unique and made the story creative. The personification of Ulysses made the book interesting for all ages. Secondly, I enjoyed the plot of the book because the plot made the reader eager to keep reading. It was suspenseful to see if Flora's mother was going to take Ulysses and how they were going to resolve the conflict of the so called super squirrel. Finally, I enjoyed the illustrations because they demonstrated Flora's love for comics while telling the story. The illustrations showed Flora's interests while enhancing the story. They also created a fun and creative way to enhance the story to help reader attention.
The big idea of the story is that, although parents don't completely agree with what you do, they are trying to help you and they will always love you. ( )

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I enjoyed the frequent illustrations that broke up the writing throughout the book. Many chapter books do not have illustrations and this was a nice addition to the story. The illustrations are humorous and help bring the story to life. Chapter forty is written entirely in illustrations in the style of a comic book. Secondly, I enjoyed the writing style of this book. The book's chapters are very short and jump straight to the main event in the chapter, making this an easy read. The writing is in third person and switches back and forth between narrating for the two main characters. This allows the reader to get inside the minds of these characters and view the story from multiple perspectives. The reason I did not rate this book 5 stars is that some of the language in the book may be a little complicate for the intended audience. The overall theme in "Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures" is parent relationships. Flora feels as if her mother does not love her and in the end she realises that she is wrong and her mother is just not able to show her emotions well. This teaches the reader that we all display our feelings in different ways. ( )