F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E

Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillos New Novel to Publish September 24, 2013

On sale 9/24/2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6040-6 $17.99 ($20.00 CAN) 240 pages Ages 812

illustrated by K. G. Campbell

Somerville, MA Candlewick Press is pleased to announce the highly anticipated new novel from Newbery Medalwinning and New York Times best-selling childrens author Kate DiCamillo: Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures to be published September 24, 2013. It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that results in unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. Kate DiCamillo delivers a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences as well as full-page illustrations, all rendered by up-andcoming artist K. G. Campbell. Describing the process of writing the book, Kate DiCamillo says, There is a line from the thirteenthcentury poet Rumi that I kept close by as I worked on this novel: The grief armies assemble, but Im not going with them. For me, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures is a book about joy and laughter, about moving away from grief and turning toward love. Additionally, it is a book about seal blubber.

About the Author

The theme of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances is a common thread in much of Kate DiCamillos writing. In her instant #1 New York Times bestseller The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a haughty china rabbit undergoes a profound transformation after finding himself facedown on the ocean floor lost, and waiting to be found. The Tale of Despereaux the Newbery Medalwinning novel that later inspired an animated adventure from Universal Pictures stars a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears who is driven by love to become an unlikely hero. And most recently, The Magicians Elephant, an acclaimed and exquisitely paced fable, dares to ask the question, What if? Kate DiCamillos own journey is something of a dream come true. After moving to Minnesota from Florida in her twenties, homesickness and a bitter winter helped inspire Because of Winn-Dixie her first published novel, which, remarkably, became a runaway bestseller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. After the Newbery committee called me, I spent the whole day walking into walls, she says. I was stunned. And very, very happy. Her second novel, The Tiger Rising, went on to become a National Book Award Finalist. And since then, the master storyteller has written for a wide range of ages, including a comical early-chapter-book series about Mercy Watson (a porcine wonder with an obsession for buttered toast), as well as a luminous holiday picture book, Great Joy. Born in Philadelphia, the author lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a week.

Kate DiCamillo Publishing Facts & Figures

the Winner ofMedal and Newbery a Newbery Honor, a National Book Award Finalist, and a Boston GlobeHorn Book Award Winner

11 New York Times best-selling titles

in all editions

18.5 million copies combined in print

worldwide

Books translated into 39 languages Two major featurefilm adaptations of

her books: Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux
Illustration 2013 by K. G. Campbell

About the Illustrator

Keith Gordon Campbell spent his tender years on a damp and salty island in the Far North, where wild winds rattle the windows and turn ones umbrella inside out. He was educated in an old, black, turreted school with ghosts and secret passages and stuff. He wasnt one for chasing after balls or playing leapfrog; he preferred to find quiet corners where he could read, or write and illustrate peculiar stories. Later, he attended a nearby university and graduated with a masters in art history. That, it turned out, wasnt a terribly useful trade (in fact, its not a trade at all), but somehow or other (he could never quite explain how) it turned him into an interior designer in Hollywood, of all places! But despite his advancing years, Keith never could shake his taste for childrens books. Among his favorites was one entitled The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Raving about this book helped Keith realize that crafting exquisite illustrated stories for kids was what he should have been doing all along. So he became an author-illustrator just as fast as he could (which wasnt very fast). And you can only imagine his dumbfounded amazement when very soon after, the opportunity arose to illuminate the adventures of Flora and Ulysses. This has been, he says, an expansive and joyful experience. What wonderfully oddball and charismatic characters people this story. It was a thrilling challenge to bring them to life. Keith is the author and illustrator of Lesters Dreadful Sweaters, which received an Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor and a Golden Kite Award, as well as of The Mermaid and The Shoe, which is due out in early 2014. He is also the illustrator of Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman, due out this fall. He still lives in California, where one doesnt even need an umbrella . . . and its not the wind that rattles your windows!
Illustrations 2013 by K. G. Campbell

A Conversation with the Author

Q: Candlewick has dubbed Flora & Ulysses genre-bending because it features a split narrative format incorporating graphic and comics-style layouts and illustrations. Did you write the book this way purposely? Is this a genre you intentionally wanted to experiment with? A: I love it when you guys dub things. Ive been going around for the last few weeks saying to myself, I have written a genre-bending novel. It makes me feel zippy. Alas, I cannot take any credit for the genre-bendiness. I wrote the novel as straight text. The editorial and design geniuses at Candlewick came up with the idea of doing part of the text as comics. I thought the idea was brilliant, and I said, Holy bagumba! I will give it a try! Q: Our entry point into the story of Ulysses is literally and figuratively through a vacuum cleaner. Explain how your own connection to the vacuum cleaner of all vacuum cleaners first inspired this story. A: My mother had an Electrolux tank vacuum cleaner that she was, um, obsessed with. Actually, she loved the vacuum cleaner. And in a weird way, the Ulysses 2000X, and what happens because of it, is an homage to my mother. My mother loved to laugh. Q: Were you a comics reader as a child, like Flora? Do you remember having any favorite superheroes? A: What I read as a child, what I lived in as a child, was Charles Schulzs Peanuts. My brother and I checked out Peanuts anthologies from the Cooper Memorial Library and read them from front to back and then started over again. My favorite superhero is Charlie Brown. Q: Did you have any kind of strong reactions when you first saw K. G. Campbells art for the book? Is it anything like what you envisioned while you were writing? A: I did have a strong reaction. I levitated with joy. Its nothing like I envisioned. Its better than anything I am capable of envisioning. Q: Another common strand in many of your books is the emergence of an unlikely hero. Ulysses is about as unlikely as they get. What drew you to a squirrel for this story? A: Well, there was a squirrel death on the front steps of my house. And I thought, What if the squirrel didnt die? What if the squirrel were rescued? It is that marvelous what-if that continues to preoccupy me. Q: Your books have certainly navigated humor writing on many levels, particularly the series for younger readers. Was it a challenge to sustain a humorous, laugh-out-loud sort of narrative of this length? A: All I know is that this book never failed to make me laugh. I did a lot of rewrites, and I laughed my way through all of them. This could be because I am crazy. Or maybe it is because the book is funny. You decide. Q: Many of your characters have very healthy appetites, even food fixations. What is it about food-driven characters that you love to write about? A: Well, obviously, if I write about food-driven characters, then I get to write about food. Which means I get to think about food. Which I love to do. Almost as much as I like to eat food. Q: Flora & Ulysses has a big, bursting heart, and central to that is Floras relationship with her parents. She winds up in a very different place with them by the end of the story. Can you talk a little about that journey? A: Well, that takes us back to the marvelous what-if again. What if things can be put back together? What if there is a way for us to reach out to each other? What if there is a way for us to take hold of the people we love? What if we were brave enough to do that? What would happen then?

Praise for Kate DiCamillo

The Magicians Elephant
With its rhythmic sentences and fairy-tale tone, this novel yields solitary pleasures but begs to be read aloud. Hearing it in a shared space can connect us, one to one, regardless of age, much like the books closing image: a small stone carving, hands linked, of the elephants friends. Washington Post Book World Kate DiCamillo has a gift . . . of eliminating the obvious and still egging on the reader. She writes beautifully but thinks simply. The purity of her prose the reader goes from paragraph to paragraph delighting in the wonderful simple sentences only adds to the winsome purity of her vision. The New York Times Book Review

The Tiger Rising

The author delves deeply into the psyches
of her cast with carefully choreographed scenes, opting for the economy of poetry over elaborate prose. . . . DiCamillo demonstrates her versatility by treating themes similar to those of her first novel with a completely different approach. Readers will eagerly anticipate her next work. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Together [the characters] learn about trust, friendship, and feelings as they plot to set the tiger free. In the process, they learn another valuable lesson, one that readers wont soon forget. Dallas Morning News The brief novel, which features a well realized setting and an almost palpable aura of sadness, has a certain mythic quality. The Horn Book

The Tale of Despereaux

[DiCamillo] sets the stage for a battle between the forces of Darkness and Light in The Tale of Despereaux, and the book is a terrific, bravura performance. The New York Times Book Review Unexpectedly complex in the relationships between its characters, DiCamillos fable, engagingly illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, delivers a carefully orchestrated, but not overstated, testament to the power of love and forgiveness. San Francisco Chronicle

Great Joy
A gorgeous volume with illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, Great Joy is about the difference between marking Christmas and understanding its meaning. Miami Herald Theres genuine warmth to the satisfying Christmas pageant climax, which resonates like a favorite carol the kind that makes you cry. Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Rarely is a holiday book so lovely in every way. BookPage

The author of Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tiger Rising here

shifts gears, demonstrating her versatility while once again proving her genius for mining the universal themes of childhood. . . . I must tell you, you are in for a treat. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Because of Winn-Dixie
Poignant and delicately told. The New York Times Book Review DiCamillo doesnt shy from bad things, and while she validates a childs sense of grief and loss, she also holds open lifes possibilities. Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) An exquisitely crafted first novel. Each chapter possesses an arc of its own and reads almost like a short story in its completeness, yet the chapters add up to much more than a sum of their parts. . . . This bittersweet tale of contemporary life in a small southern town will hold readers rapt. Publishers Weekly

Early Readers Series

Bink & Gollie
Oh, happiness! Move over, Pippi Longstocking. . . . Bink and Gollie . . . join the ranks of George and Martha, Frog and Toad, Zelda and Ivy, and all the other resilient pairs that celebrate the challenges and strengths of a great friendship. The New York Times Book Review An effervescent and endearingly quirky chapter book by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee. . . . Both writers are known for their amusing and sometimes arch narrative style, and here, in three short chapter-stories, they give us two girls who delight and vex each other in equal parts. . . . Tony Fuciles illustrations of the girls are comic and full of zip. The Wall Street Journal

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

One reading is hardly enough to savor the rich philosophical nuances of DiCamillos story. I think I will go read it again right now. The New York Times Book Review This choice is destined to become a classic. Dallas Morning News When Edwards journey ends, the reader will be wishing this story could go on and on. The Washington Post

The Mercy Watson Series

DiCamillos suspenseful yarn keeps readers turning the page, while the retro-folksy illustrations by Chris Van Dusen go for laughs and make for a gentle transition from picture books. FamilyFun Magazine A beguiling blend of slapstick and whimsy. Child Magazine