• Raymie Nightingale (Raymie Nightingale #1)

Raymie Nightingale
(Raymie Nightingale #1)

Publication Date
April 10, 2018
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  4th − 5th
Language
English
Raymie Nightingale (Raymie Nightingale #1)

Description

Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.

Publication date
April 10, 2018
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780763696917
Lexile Measure
550
Guided Reading Level
U
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
Series
Raymie Nightingale
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV039050 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Emotions & Feelings
JUV016000 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | General
JUV013020 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Marriage & Divorce

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Set in 1975, this tender novel shows how even when life seems out of one's control--people die, parents disappoint--persistence and belief pay off. The story is told from the perspective of Raymie Clarke, whose father has just run off with a dental hygienist. Raymie, however, has a plan to bring him back: she will win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire contest, get her picture in the paper, and her father will come running home. The plan inspires her to take a baton-twirling class, where she meets Beverly Tapinski--a girl with a chip on her shoulder, who vows to sabotage the contest--and ingenuous Louisiana Elefante, an orphan who claims to be the daughter of the famous Flying Elefantes. With extraordinary skill, two-time Newbery Medalist DiCamillo traces the girls' growing trust in each other while using understated confessionals and subtly expressed yearnings to show how tragedies have affected each of them. The book culminates with a daring cat-rescue mission: fraught with adventure, danger, and a miracle or two, the escapade reveals how love and compassion can overcome even the highest hurdles. Ages 10-up. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Apr.)

Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7—Hoping to attract the attention of her father, who has left home, and her mother, a young girl takes up twirling. While the baton lessons go south immediately, Raymie befriends two similarly vulnerable, lonely kids confronting their own family issues and who, like her, are trying to make sense of a sometimes bewildering world. Filled with heart and hope, DiCamillo's latest masterpiece is populated with characters whom readers won't soon forget.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo is the celebrated author of many books for children, including Flora & Ulysses and The Tale of Despereaux, both of which received Newbery Medals. A former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, she lives in Minneapolis.

Harry Bliss is a cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker. He has illustrated many picture books, including the #1 New York Times best-selling series by Doreen Cronin that began with Diary of a Worm, and he has both written and illustrated several picture books, including Grace for Gus and Luke on the Loose. Harry Bliss lives in New Hampshire.
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