The Tiger Rising

by Kate DiCamillo
published: Candlewick Press, 2001
pages: 128

Rob and his dad move to a small rural town in Florida after his mom dies to start over. The only problem is that he doesn't like school and nobody particularly likes him.  However, things begin to change when he finds a tiger and meets a girl named Sistine, like the chapel.

Rob and Sistine are complete opposites and it plays incredibly well in the story.  Rob likes to keep everything bottled up and put away and Sistine wears her emotions on the brightly colored sleeves of her dress, sometimes they're carried on her fists too.  They help each other figure out how to handle their own personal situations without ever really talking about how it affects them. I love that they become friends.   Their friendship is humorous and heartfelt.

This book is overflowing with symbolic meaning, some of it you don't consciously catch.  The tiger in the cage, the name of the hotel, the weather, Sistine and Rob's relationship, Rob's hobby - all of these things have a little bit of symbolic meaning that makes this short story so powerful, so palpable.

This story was a very short quick read, but it was incredibly well told and bittersweet.  Kate DiCamillo has such a way with words.  Everything she writes sounds little bit musical, and a lot like poetry.  She is able to tackle hard topics, such as a death of a parent, in a way that kids can understand and relate.  It's amazing to me how much I can feel for these characters even though I only get to know them for 128 pages.

Stars: 4/5

"Kate DiCamilo's sentences waste not a single word: they spin out, with the Florida mist rising off them."
     --Booklist

"A poignant story of loss and redemption"
     --Miami Harold

A 2015 Full House Reading Challenge book

Notable Quotable: Kate DiCamillo (#84)

"It's not even that I bump into things.  It's more that things leap out of nowhere and bump into me." 
     --Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventure

Notable Quotable: Kate DiCamillo (#81)

"That was the thing about tragedy.  It was just sitting there, keeping you company, waiting.  And you had absolutely no idea." 
     --Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

by Kate DiCamillo
published: Candlewick Press, 2013
pages: 232

Flora is a self-proclaimed cynic living an unassuming cynical life with a mother who is more interested in her romance novels than her daughter.  Flora's life is dull, until she observe her neighbor accidentally vacuum up a squirrel.  From that moment on, Flora's life takes a turn for the unexpected.  She befriends a superhero squirrel and sniffs out the arch-nemesis in their story.  Together Flora and Ulysses will save the world.

I liked the comic book, superhero feel of the story which was helped by the periodic illustrated panels.  Flora, the cynical 10-year-old main character, lived her life in a comic book style.  She'd see words written above people she interacted with much like the words in the panels of the comics she read.  Incandesto is her superhero of choice and she compared everything in her life to that of Incandesto's life and modeled her actions off of his.

Ulysses is a very interesting character, especially since he is a squirrel.  He's a super hero squirrel with an origin story that's bizarre and unique.  He discovers his abilities right along with Flora.  What he decides he wants to do with them is vastly different than what everyone else wants him to do.  He's an adorable character.

Kate DiCamillo hits on hard topics in all of her novels and Flora and Ulysses is no exception.  The characters deal with love, grief, angry, loss, divorce, loneliness and so much more.  She does an excellent job of explaining these in a way that children will understand without oversimplifying them.

This book is not my favorite Kate DiCamillo book, that title is still held by Tale of Despereaux, but it was enjoyable and entertaining all the same.

Stars: 3/5 

Praise:

"Original, touching and 0h-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl."
     --Kirkus Review

"Despite supremely quirky characters and dialogue worthy of an SAT prep class, there's real emotion at the heart of this story involving two kids who have been failed by the most important people in their lives: their parents.
     --Publishers Weekly

"In "Flora and Ulysses," longtime fans will find a happy marriage of Mercy Watson's warmth and wackiness and Edward Tulane's gentle life lessons.  In Flora, they will find a girl worth knowing, and one they will remember.
     --The New York Time Book Review

A 2015 Newbery Reading Challenge Book.
A 2015 Full House Reading Challenge Book. 

Notable Quotable: Kate DiCamillo (#58)

"Thinking about her was the hole you keep on feeling with your tongue after you lose a tooth. Time after time, my mind kept going to that empty spot, the spot where I felt like she should be."
     -- Because of Winn-Dixie

Notable Quotable: Kate DiCamillo (#26)

"There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it."
     --Because of Winn-Dixie

Notable Quotable: Kate DiCamillo (#2)

"And he discovered, finally, the source of the honey-sweet sound. The sound was music."
                   --Tale of Despereaux

Kate DiCamillo has a unique way of expressing sentiments that have been said over and over again.  The idea that music is powerful and beautiful is something that everyone knows, but she is able to describe music in a brand new way that is simple, yet completely true.