kate dicamillo raymie nightingale series

The girls, all fatherless, band together to attempt to solve the problems they see in their own lives – problems which the adults that care for them seem to find insurmountable.īut, like nearly all perfect things, Raymie Nightingale is more than a description of it’s component parts. At her first lesson, Raymie meets fearless saboteur Beverly Tapinski, who plans to ruin the pageant from inside, and glittery, delicate Louisiana Elefante, who lives with her grandmother in a house without food or electricity and wants to win the pageant to rescue her cat Archie from the Very Friendly Animal Center.

Raymie’s interest isn’t in the prize money or the glory, however she wants to win the pageant because two days before her father ran away with a dental hygienist, and she hopes that if he sees her picture in the paper, he’ll come home. The story itself is about ten-year-old Raymie Clark, who signs up for baton-twirling lessons in an attempt to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire 1975 pageant. I texted my friend: “It is about childhood and grief and hopefulness. Kate DiCamillo called this book “the absolutely true story of heart.” I understand. When I closed the cover this afternoon, after staring for a while at the last page, I was crying the way you cry at simple miracles. It is perfect.” The book, of course, was Raymie Nightingale.

On Tuesday, I called a friend of mine to tell him something that felt, in that moment, desperately important. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press, 2016) Reviewed by Rebecca Valley

Kate dicamillo raymie nightingale series