TBR Pile: Flora & Ulysses

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures is, amazingly, the first book I've read by Kate DiCamillo. Okay, I take it back. I may have read Because of Winn-Dixie a while back, but I don't completely remember. Anyway, DiCamillo is quite well-known in the children's book community for her frequent medals and honors. This book was the Newbery Medal Winner for last year, 2014, and it definitely lives up to the hype.

(picture taken from Goodreads)

Conclusion: This book is purposely dark in a way that's appropriate for children. It is technically about Ulysses the squirrel and his adventures becoming a superhero with the support of his self-professed critic sidekick, Flora. But DiCamillo addresses many more underlying issues in the background: finding purpose and self-importance as a pre-teen, parental divorce, conflict with parents, feeling neglected or silenced, etc. The illustrations are fantastic as well as the writing. Not only did K.G. Campbell perfectly represent each character, but the drawings also added a graphic novel element to parts of the story, complementing Ulysses's heroic feats. This is just an overall great book. Visually appealing and humorous, but deep and heartwarming, too.

This book is my thirteenth read for the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge. I'm pretty excited to be reading so many of my TBR books this year, especially since I didn't read many of them last year. Hopefully you all are tackling those mountains as well--there's still half a year to go!