FLORA AND ULYSSES: THE ILLUMINATED ADVENTURES BY Kate DiCamillo. CANDLEWICK Press, September 2013.

How to do justice to this book? Very seldom do words fail me. Thankfully, they do not fail DiCamillo who gives readers an incredible story of Flora and the squirrel she rescues from a wayward vacuum cleaner, Ulysses. Who knows whether it was the ride into the vacuum cleaner or not, but Ulysses seems to understand everything going on around him, especially as it relates to Flora. Flora also feels the special new connection, and so Ulysses becomes a part of her life. It is not a simple transaction, this, because Flora's mother, a preoccupied writer, does not want a squirrel in her home. After all, they carry diseases, right? And then there is the matter of the neighbor and her great-nephew, William, who insists he is temporarily blind. from giant donuts (with sprinkles) to kind retired doctors, and an attack cat, DiCamillo has created a wonderful story about friendship, about finding one's way, and about poetry. MUST READ.