Flora And Ulysses

78 pages • 2 hours read

Flora And Ulysses

Kate DiCamilloFiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2013

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Prologue-Chapters 21

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Reading Check

1. Who sucks up Ulysses with their vacuum?

2. How does Flora save Ulysses from death?

3. What does Flora think her mother loves more than her?

4. What does William claim is his affliction?

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Short Answer

Answer each question with at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is Flora’s fictional hero and why?

2. What unconventional superpower does Ulysses have, and how does he reveal it?

3. How does Flora’s mother react to finding her typewriter has been used?

Paired Resources

How to Create Comics

This resource explains comics-related terminology.
Choose a comic strip image from the novel. Can you identify an artistic element or technique that the artist, K. G. Campbell, employed? What purpose does the technique or element serve?

“Calvin and Hobbes: ‘You Got an A’”

This Calvin and Hobbes comic strip by Bill Patterson showcases an unconventional approach to comic strip formatting.
What effect does this comic format produce? Where is your eye directed as you read, and how does this comic strip differ from a typical one? Are the comic strips in the novel more conventional or unconventional?

Chapters 22-36

Reading Check

1. What does Flora’s mother ask Flora’s father to do?

2. Who inspires Ulysses with their poem?

3. How does Ulysses hurt himself?

What is the name of the comic strip that advises Flora on how to approach dangerous situations?

Short Answer

Answer each question with at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does it mean to be a “giant ear” and what does Flora find out when she becomes one?

2. What does Ulysses think about while in the car with Flora and her father?

3. What happens at the Giant Do-Nut, and how does it impact Flora’s father?

Paired Resource

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”

This Emily Dickinson poem illustrates the resilience and selflessness of hope.
What is this poem saying about the nature of hope? How does this quote relate to Ulysses’s impact on Flora’s family?

Chapters 37-51

Reading Check

1. What type of doctor does Dr. Meescham turn out to be?

2. Who attacks Flora’s father in the apartment complex hallway?

3. How does Ulysses prove his superpowers to Flora’s mother?

4. What bad habit does Flora’s mother pick up again?

Short Answer

Answer each question with at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What painting does Dr. Meescham have on her wall, and what does it symbolize?

2. Why does Flora feel her father’s heart in the car on the way home?

3. How does Flora assert herself with her mother, and how does Flora’s mother react to her declaration?

Paired Resource

“Hope”

George Frederic Watts’s painting illustrates his concept of hope.
What do you think makes the world a beautiful place? Why might belief in The Possibility of the Impossible help make the world more beautiful?

Chapters 52-68

Reading Check

1. Who kidnaps Ulysses?

2. Who does Flora enlist to help find Ulysses after he is kidnapped?

3. Where does Ulysses fly to after he escapes his kidnapping?

4. How does Tootie save Flora’s parents from the landlord’s cat?

Short Answer

Answer each question with at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What happens in Flora’s dream, and what two events does it foreshadow?

2. Where does Flora end up finding Ulysses, and what happens when her mother realizes she is missing?

3. What is Ulysses’s goal beyond the conclusion of the story?

Recommended Next Reads

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

This middle-grade novel by the same author includes similar themes of companionship with animals, family issues, and renewed hope.
Because of Winn-Dixie on SuperSummary

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

This middle-grade graphic novel celebrates the art of comic book creation, much like Flora and Ulysses. It deals with themes of growing up, gaining independence, and friendship.
Roller Girl on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

Prologue-Chapter 21

Reading Check

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1. Tootie Tickham (Chapter 1)

2. Flora gives Ulysses CPR. (Chapter 4)

3. The glass shepherdess lamp (Chapter 10)

4. Blindness (Chapter 17)

Short Answer

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1. Incandesto is Flora’s favorite fictional hero. He is a janitor who transforms into Incandesto to vanquish evil. Flora admires Incandesto for his courage, empathy, and superpowers. (Various Chapters)

2. Ulysses has the power to understand human speech and write. He reveals this power by using Flora’s mother’s typewriter in the middle of the night to write his first sentence. (Chapter 13)

3. Flora’s mother reacts with shock and anger when she sees her typewriter has been used. She initially blames Flora for the cheese puff dust on the typewriter and Ulysses’s first sentence. (Chapter 14)

Chapters 22-36

Reading Check

1. Flora’s mother tells Flora’s father to kill Ulysses with a shovel. (Chapter 23)

2. Tootie Tickham (Chapter 25)

3. Ulysses flies into a glass door at the Giant Do-Nut. (Chapter 32)

4. “The Criminal Element” (Various Chapters)

Short Answer

1. Being a “giant ear” means listening to everything around you. When Flora eavesdrops on her parents, she hears her mother ask her father to kill Ulysses. (Chapter 23)

2. Ulysses thinks about all the wonderful sights and smells around him, and how happy he is to be with Flora. He is already used to the possibility of death, being a squirrel, so it does not bother him. (Chapter 27)

3. At the Giant Do-Nut, Ulysses jumps out of his shoebox and flies around the diner, revealing yet another superpower. This causes Flora’s father to finally feel happy again, as he smiles and laughs while watching Ulysses. He also remembers the Incandesto comics he and his daughter once enjoyed together and begins quoting them again. (Chapters 31-32)

Chapters 37-51

Reading Check

1. Doctor of Philosophy (Chapter 37)

2. The landlord’s cat, Mr. Klaus (Chapter 40)

3. Ulysses flies around the kitchen and types out a list of words (Chapters 45, 46, and 50)

4. Smoking (Chapter 49)

Short Answer

1. Dr. Meescham has a painting of a black sea with a single boat being consumed by a giant squid. The painting symbolizes loneliness and the terrible things it makes people do. (Chapter 38)

2. Flora had a bonding moment with her father in the Giant Do-Nut, as they watched Ulysses fly. He seemed to return to his old self, and Flora wanted to make this moment last longer; George’s heartbeat also gives her strength. (Chapter 41)

3. Flora asserts herself by accusing her mother of wanting Ulysses killed, and then tells her that she wants to move in with her father. Flora’s mother reacts coldly, saying Flora’s absence would make her life easier. (Chapters 44-45)

Chapters 52-68

Reading Check

1. Flora’s mother (Chapter 58)

2. Tootie and William (Chapter 57)

3. The Giant Do-Nut and then, Dr. Meescham’s apartment (Chapters 62-63)

4. Tootie hits the cat with the shepherdess lamp. (Chapter 66)

Short Answer

1. In Flora’s dream, she is sitting on a riverbank with William listening to the sounds of the universe. They hold hands and she feels happy, not lonely or homesick. However, Flora soon realizes Ulysses is absent from the dream. This dream foreshadows Ulysses’s kidnapping and the growing bond between Flora and William. (Chapter 53)

2. Flora finds Ulysses at Dr. Meescham’s apartment. When Flora’s mother realizes she is missing, she panics and searches for her at the apartment complex. Flora realizes her mother loves her after all. (Chapters 65-67)

3. Ulysses wishes to write poems about his experiences, the people and things he loves, and things he hopes will happen. He hopes William will make up with his mother, and that Dr. Meescham will be visited by her long-deceased husband. Ulysses also thinks about all the wonderful foods he will get to eat. (Chapter 68)