Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

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Bibliography

DiCamillo, Kate.  Illus. by K.G. Campbell.  Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.  Somerville: Candlewick, 2013.  978-0-7636-6040-6

Summary

Comic-loving Flora is a self-declared cynic, but that doesn’t keep her from caring.  When her neighbor’s new vacuum accidentally sucks up a squirrel, Flora is there in flash to assist the poor creature.  This begins an unbelievable and amazing chain of events that will strengthen Flora’s family ties and intertwine her life with Ulysses, a poetry-writing Super Squirrel.

Analysis

Flora is a girl that the nerd in everyone will love.  The voice DiCamillo has created for her is strong and confident while she questions and works out the world around her.  The influence of her favorite comic book character gives her a unique way of seeing the world and quirky catch phrases, such as “Holy bagumba,” make Flora truly come to life.

All the characters in the book are overly dramatic and slightly odd, but these factors serve to make them more enjoyable and somehow more relatable.  In a story that teaches about love and believing in something, the character flaws of parents and neighbors serve as a lesson in understanding and compassion.  I also suspect that to young children of divorced parents, the absurdities I see as an adult may not seem quite as ridiculous. 

Every time Ulysses, the superhero squirrel, does something super, it is presented as a comic.  This adds to the story by further bringing Flora’s love of comics into the book.  It also brings Ulysses more to life.  The best part though, as a teacher, is that it bridges the gap between chapter books, picture books and comics.  With every passing year, more and more students are reluctant to read books that are predominantly made of words.  Flora and Ulysses helps these students to make the jump.

Awards and Reviews

*2014 Newbery Medal

*National Book Award Longlist

“When a neighbor accidentally vacuums a squirrel into a Ulysses 2000X vacuum cleaner, Flora resuscitates him into a “changed squirrel,” able to lift the 2000X with a single paw. Immediately assuming he’s a superhero, Flora names the squirrel “Ulysses” and believes together they will “[shed] light into the darkest corners of the universe.” Able to understand Flora, type, compose poetry and fly, the transformed Ulysses indeed exhibits superpowers, but he confronts his “arch-nemesis" when Flora’s mother tries to terminate him, triggering a chain of events where Ulysses becomes a real superhero. The very witty text and droll, comic-book–style black-and-white illustrations perfectly relay the all-too-hilarious adventures of Flora, Ulysses and a cast of eccentric characters who learn to believe in the impossible and have “capacious” hearts.

Original, touching and oh-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl.” –Kirkus

“Since Flora’s father and mother have split up, Flora has become a confirmed and defiant cynic. Yet it is hard to remain a cynic while one’s heart is opening to a squirrel who can type (“Squirtl. I am . . . born anew”), who can fly, and who adores Flora. Newbery winner DiCamillo is a master storyteller, and not just because she creates characters who dance off the pages and plots, whether epic or small, that never fail to engage and delight readers. Her biggest strength is exposing the truths that open and heal the human heart. She believes in possibilities and forgiveness and teaches her audience that the salt of life can be cut with the right measure of love. “ -Booklist

Connections

An interview with DiCamillo

Flora uses amazing vocabulary throughout the book.  Provide each student in class with an impressive word.  Students then will look up their word.  When they have an understanding of its meaning, they will create a one page comic to illustrate it.  Combine these comics into a Class Comic Dictionary.

The official book trailer

While they came to a reconciliation at the end of the book, throughout the book Flora and her mother were at odds over just about everything.  Choose one thing they disagreed about.  Write a letter from Flora to her mother (or vice versa) explaining the problem and providing a number of possible solutions.  Be sure to justify and explain Flora’s viewpoint and show kindness and respect.

Resources from the author

Flora shows great compassion for others throughout the book.  Research different local causes, such as animal shelters, soup kitchens or food banks.  Arrange to volunteer for the organization.  Can you turn your experience into a superhero comic?

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet: a play by William Shakespeare

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Bibliography

Hinds, Gareth. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet: a play by William Shakespeare.  Somerville: Candlewick Press, 2013.  978-0-7636-5948-6

Summary

A classic tale of forbidden love is given new life in the format of a graphic novel.  Two families, the Montagues and Capulets, are at eternal odds.  Their dislike for each other often turns to violence.  Despite this feud, young Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet find each other and immediately fall hopelessly in love.  Tragedy is on the horizon for all, as young love deepens and the hatred between families grows.

Analysis

Beautiful illustrations bring Shakespeare’s original work to life in this modern adaptation.  Vivid watercolors capture the elegance and graces of the story, while Batman-style onomatopoeias bring action and movement to the words.  The modern format opens the work to a new generation of readers who may otherwise be put off to the antiquated style of writing.

Unfortunately, the comic style often hinders the original format.  Due to the small space for speech bubbles, the work is abridged and the iambic pentameter often destroyed by misplaced line breaks.  While there are sections of the book where the original lines have been preserved, the areas where design dominates verse are hard to read and lack the original power of Shakespeare’s writing. 

While Hinds’s work opens the door, those who are reluctant will likely still require assistance and care to learn to enjoy Shakespeare.  I am personally not a fan of reading Shakespeare’s works.  I found the graphic novel to be more pleasant than simply reading, but would not choose it over seeing the works acted out. 

Awards and Reviews

*YALSA 2014 Great Graphic Novels for Teens nomination

*Kirkus Best Teens Books 2013 selection

“Hinds as director, set designer and writer has expertly abridged the original text while embellishing it with modern sensibilities. His edition retains the flavor and poetry of the 1597 play and its memorable and oft-quoted dialogue. It is in the watercolor and digitally illustrated panels that he truly presents a stunning visual reading. Juliet and the Capulets are from India. Romeo and the Montagues are from Africa. Thus, the political rivalries of Verona become contemporary and more meaningful to 21st-century readers. The Capulets are dressed in reds and the Montagues in blue—all against the finely rendered lines of Verona’s buildings and Friar Laurence’s monastery. Beautiful shades of blue infuse the night sky as the two lovers swear their eternal devotion. The panels vary in size to control the pace of the plot. Sword fights pulse with energy and occasional karate thrusts for added drama. The most moving image—a double-page spread without words—is depicted from above in shades of gold and brown stained red with blood as Romeo and Juliet lie dead and immortalized in each other’s arms. As thrilling and riveting as any staging.” –Kirkus

“Cleaving to Shakespeare’s words and his dramatic arc, Hinds creates another splendid graphic novel, tracing each scene in taut, coherent, and expertly deployed dialogue. Hinds’s characters, in period array modified by a few more contemporary touches, are poignantly specific yet as universal as this tragic tale of young love demands. ... . Expertly pacing the drama with varied frames, often with sharp, action-propelling angles, Hinds explicates and amplifies Shakespeare’s story on every page, including wordless fight scenes that highlight pivotal details. ... From swirling action to subtly delineated emotion, he delivers the play’s essence and beauty, its glorious language, furious conflict, yearning love, and wrenching tragedy. This is not only a wonderfully accessible introduction to a full text or (better yet) theatrical production; it’s a visual delight for anyone.” –The Horn Book

Connections

Read, watch and act out Romeo and Juliet.  Write a comparison about how the different mediums affect your understanding and reaction to the play. 

Gareth Hinds’s Website

Hinds's Sketch Blog

Hinds has turned a number of other Shakespeare works into graphic novels, such as MacBeth and The Merchant of Venice.  Choose one of these titles to read.  Create separate Venn Diagrams comparing the illustrations, emotion, and main characters from the books.

A presentation by Hinds

Q&A with Hinds

Twitter

Hinds took an old, famous story and made it his own.  Choose an old story that you love and give it new life.  Reinvigorate it any way you would like, such as making a graphic novel, filming a movie or creating a stop-action film.

The Book Thief

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Bibliography

Zusak, Markus.  The Book Thief.  New York: Knopf, 2005.  978-0-375-84220-7

Summary

Liesel was not born a thief, it is a habit she has decided to cultivate and develop.  Stealing books gives her something she can control in an otherwise uncontrollable world.  Given up by her mother, watching her brother die, and living in a nation being torn apart of the atrocities of Hitler and World War Two, there is little else in her life she has power over.  While stealing away her books, Liesel learns to hope from those around her, discovers a new family and learns compassion in ways she never could imagine.

Analysis

While stories of the Holocaust and Hitler are popular these days, The Book Thief stands out.  To begin, it does not tell the story of concentration camps or Jews, but rather the life of a young, average, German girl.  Rather than focusing on the atrocities experienced by the persecuted, Zusak illustrates the everyday struggles of the poor and under-educated; a population easily over looked by history due to their lack of involvement or direct suffering during the war.  To add to this unique perspective, The Book Thief is voiced by a narrator who, while a major player in World War Two is rarely heard directly from; that of Death himself.

It seems only appropriate that Death would narrate a novel that is set in Germany in the midst of World War Two.  The voice that Zusak has created for him is somehow equally unexpected and absolutely perfect.  Death is cool and causal about the events of the human world around him, painting a picture of the world Liesel lives in without becoming overly connected to the humans he passes and carries.  At the same time, he is able to express all the anguish, fear and hope those who live with Liesel on Himmel Street experience, giving insights that allow the reader to connect with every major character in the book.

Of all the characters, Liesel and her Papa, Hans, are the most likeable.  Every action they take shows the depth of their compassion and the quality of their characters.  While the rest of Germany appears to have aligned their beliefs with Hitler, Hans does what is right and not popular, despite the repercussions he faces.  Liesel, in her own, more selfish way, also does what is right; rather than live illiterate and uneducated, she searches for opportunities to steal knowledge and learning.  Together, they work to make the best of the bad situation they have been given, eternally optimists.

Awards and Reviews

*SLJ Best Book of the Year

*Michael L. Printz Honor Book

*National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

*Daniel Elliott Peace Award

“The Book Thie’ is perched on the cusp between grown-up and young-adult fiction, and it is loaded with librarian appeal. It deplores human misery. It celebrates the power of language. It may encourage adolescents to read. It has an element of the fanciful. And it's a book that bestows a self-congratulatory glow upon anyone willing to grapple with it….

To be sure, The Book Thief attempts and achieves great final moments of tear-jerking sentiment. And Liesel is a fine heroine, a memorably strong and dauntless girl. But for every startlingly rebellious episode — Rudy's Führer-baiting impersonation of the black American athlete Jesse Owens, the building of an indoor snowman for a Jew in hiding, the creation of books and drawings that frame Liesel and Max's experiences as life-affirming fairy tales — there are moments that are slack.

The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that.”  -New York Times

“When Death tells a story, you pay attention. Liesel Meminger is a young girl growing up outside of Munich in Nazi Germany, and Death tells her story as “an attempt—a flying jump of an attempt—to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.” When her foster father helps her learn to read and she discovers the power of words, Liesel begins stealing books from Nazi book burnings and the mayor’s wife’s library. As she becomes a better reader, she becomes a writer, writing a book about her life in such a miserable time. Liesel’s experiences move Death to say, “I am haunted by humans.” How could the human race be “so ugly and so glorious” at the same time? This big, expansive novel is a leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it’s a work to read slowly and savor. Beautiful and important.” –Kirkus

Connections

Read Night by ElieWiesel or Maus by Art Spiegelman.  Using what you learned about Max from the The Book Thief and the image of life in the concentration camps created by the other book, create a journal or narrative of Max’s life after the Germans captured him. 

Liesel is around the same age as Dewey from The Green Glass Sea and alive during the same time period, however their life experiences are very different.  Write a script of a conversation between the two girls about their experiences during World War Two.

Watch the movie version of The Book Thief.  Compare and contrast the two stories. Which version do you like more?  Why?

Markus Zusak writes about his book being made into a movie.

The movie trailer

An interview with Zusak

Zusak’s Twitter