Raymie Nightingale

by Kate DiCamillo

Overview

A 2016 National Book Award Finalist!

Two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo returns to her roots with a moving, masterful story of an unforgettable summer friendship.

Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763687083
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	550L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Kate DiCamillo is one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She was the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and is a two-time Newbery Medalist. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a week.

The theme of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances is a common thread in much of Kate DiCamillo’s 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 Medal–winning 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 The Magician’s Elephant, an acclaimed and exquisitely paced fable, dares to ask the question, What if?

Kate DiCamillo’s 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. Since then, the master storyteller has written for a wide range of ages. She is the author of six books in the Mercy Watson series of early chapter books, which stars a “porcine wonder” with an obsession for buttered toast. The second book in the series, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2007. She is also the co-author of the Bink and Gollie series, which celebrates the tall and short of a marvelous friendship. The first book, Bink&Gollie, was awarded the Theodor Seuss Giesel Award in 2011.
She also wrote a luminous holiday picture book, Great Joy.

Her novel Flora&Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures won the 2014 Newbery Medal. It was released in fall 2013 to great acclaim, including five starred reviews, and was an instant New York Times bestseller. Flora&Ulysses is a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black and white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell. It was a 2013 Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner and was chosen by Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Common Sense Media as a Best Book of the Year.

Kate DiCamillo, who was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2014–2015, says about stories, “When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.” Born in Philadelphia, the author lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a week.

Hometown:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

March 25, 1964

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A. in English, University of Florida at Gainesville, 1987

Read an Excerpt

One
There were three of them, three girls.
   They were standing side by side.
   They were standing at attention.
   And then the girl in the pink dress, the one who was standing right next to Raymie, let out a sob and said, “The more I think about it, the more terrified I am. I am too terrified to go on!”
   The girl clutched her baton to her chest and dropped to her knees.
   Raymie stared at her in wonder and admiration.
   She herself often felt too terrified to go on, but she had never admitted it out loud.
   The girl in the pink dress moaned and toppled over sideways.
   Her eyes fluttered closed. She was silent. And then she opened her eyes very wide and shouted, “Archie, I’m sorry! I’m sorry I betrayed you!”
   She closed her eyes again. Her mouth fell open.
   Raymie had never seen or heard anything like it.
   “I’m sorry,” Raymie whispered. “I betrayed you.”
   For some reason, the words seemed worth repeating.
   “Stop this nonsense immediately,” said Ida Nee.
   Ida Nee was the baton-­twirling instructor. Even though she was old — ​over fifty at least — ​her hair was an extremely bright yellow. She wore white boots that came all the way up to her knees.
   “I’m not kidding,” said Ida Nee.
   Raymie believed her.
   Ida Nee didn’t seem like much of a kidder.
 
   The sun was way, way up in the sky, and the whole thing was like high noon in a Western. But it was not a Western; it was baton-­twirling lessons at Ida Nee’s house in Ida Nee’s backyard.
   It was the summer of 1975.
   It was the fifth day of June.
   And two days before, on the third day of June, Raymie Clarke’s father had run away from home with a woman who was a dental hygienist.
 Hey, diddle, diddle, the dish ran away with the spoon.
   Those were the words that went through Raymie’s head every time she thought about her father and the dental hygienist.
   But she did not say the words out loud anymore because Raymie’s mother was very upset, and talking about dishes and spoons running away together was not appropriate.
   It was actually a great tragedy, what had happened.
   That was what Raymie’s mother said.
   “This is a great tragedy,” said Raymie’s mother. “Quit reciting nursery rhymes.”
   It was a great tragedy because Raymie’s father had disgraced himself.
   It was also a great tragedy because Raymie was now fatherless.
   The thought of that — ​the fact of it — ​that she, Raymie Clarke, was without a father, made a small, sharp pain shoot through Raymie’s heart every time she considered it.
   Sometimes the pain in her heart made her feel too terrified to go on. Sometimes it made her want to drop to her knees.
   But then she would remember that she had a plan.
 
Two
“Get up,” said Ida Nee to the girl in the pink dress.
   “She fainted,” said the other baton-­twirling student, a girl named Beverly Tapinski, whose father was a cop.
   Raymie knew the girl’s name and what her father did because Beverly had made an announcement at the beginning of the lesson. She had stared straight ahead, not looking at anybody in particular, and said, “My name is Beverly Tapinski and my father is a cop, so I don’t think that you should mess with me.”
   Raymie, for one, had no intention of messing with her.
   “I’ve seen a lot of people faint,” said Beverly now. “That’s what happens when you’re the daughter of a cop. You see everything. You see it all.”
   “Shut up, Tapinski,” said Ida Nee.
   The sun was very high in the sky.
   It hadn’t moved.
   It seemed like someone had stuck it up there and then walked away and left it.
   “I’m sorry,” whispered Raymie. “I betrayed you.”
   Beverly Tapinski knelt down and put her hands on either side of the fainting girl’s face.
   “What do you think you’re doing?” said Ida Nee.
   The pine trees above them swayed back and forth. The lake, Lake Clara — ​where someone named Clara Wingtip had managed to drown herself a hundred years ago — ​gleamed and glittered.
   The lake looked hungry.
   Maybe it was hoping for another Clara Wingtip.
   Raymie felt a wave of despair.
   There wasn’t time for people fainting. She had to learn how to twirl a baton and she had to learn fast, because if she learned how to twirl a baton, then she stood a good chance of becoming Little Miss Central Florida Tire.
   And if she became Little Miss Central Florida Tire, her father would see her picture in the paper and come home.
   That was Raymie’s plan.
 
Three
The way that Raymie imagined her plan unfolding was that her father would be sitting in some restaurant, in whatever town he had run away to. He would be with Lee Ann Dickerson, the dental hygienist. They would be sitting together in a booth, and her father would be smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee, and Lee Ann would be doing something stupid and inappropriate, like maybe filing her nails (which you should never do in public). At some point, Raymie’s father would put out his cigarette and open the paper and clear his throat and say, “Let’s see what we can see here,” and what he would see would be Raymie’s picture.
   He would see his daughter with a crown on her head and a bouquet of flowers in her arms and a sash across her chest that said Little Miss Central Florida Tire 1975.
   And Raymie’s father, Jim Clarke of Clarke Family Insurance, would turn to Lee Ann and say, “I must return home immediately. Everything has changed. My daughter is now famous. She has been crowned Little Miss Central Florida Tire.”
   Lee Ann would stop filing her nails. She would gasp out loud in surprise and dismay (and also, maybe, in envy and admiration).
   That’s the way Raymie imagined it would happen.
   Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
   But first she needed to learn how to twirl a baton.
   Or so said Mrs. Sylvester.

Editorial Reviews

4/7/2016
We read for lots of reasons. We read to laugh, to cope with life, to learn, to be inspired; even to be frightened. Some books fall into our hands, are read and enjoyed, but then put away. They're like literary treats—sweet, delightful, but fleeting in our memories. And then there are the other books. The ones that remain in our minds and on our hearts long after we turn the final page.Raymie Nightingale is that kind of book. Written by two-time Newbery Medalist, and former Ambassador for Young People's Literature Kate DiCamillo, this book is a gem. Read More

B&N Reads

With its short, vibrant chapters and clear, gentle prose, this triumphant and necessary book conjures the enchantments of childhood without shying away from the fraught realities of abandonment, abuse and neglect…DiCamillo uses her light touch and boundless humor to deliver the difficult news that adults are fallible and that children must learn to develop an unwavering sense of self-reliance and self-acceptance. Summoning the wit of Flannery O'Connor and the sweet melancholy of John Prine, she elegantly connects her characters' wild actions to their roiling emotions. She writes with compassion and grace about both childhood traumas and adult transgressions…Twirling a baton requires flair and confidence, in addition to an understanding that the baton is always balanced just a tiny bit off-center. There is something wonderfully off-balance, too, about DiCamillo's storytelling. It allows her characters to sparkle and soar. DiCamillo has called this novel, based partly on her own fatherless Florida childhood, "the absolutely true story of my heart." What a beautiful and generous heart it is.

The New York Times Book Review - Amber Dermont

★ 01/18/2016
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.)

Publishers Weekly

With its short, vibrant chapters and clear, gentle prose, this triumphant and necessary book conjures the enchantments of childhood without shying away from the fraught realities of abandonment, abuse and neglect…Twirling a baton requires flair and confidence, in addition to an understanding that the baton is always balanced just a tiny bit off-center. There is something wonderfully off-balance, too, about ¬DiCamillo’s storytelling. It allows her characters to sparkle and soar. DiCamillo has called this novel, based partly on her own fatherless Florida childhood, "the absolutely true story of my heart." What a beautiful and generous heart it is.
—The New York Times Book Review

As in her previous award-winning books, DiCamillo once again shows that life’s underlying sadnesses can also be studded with hope and humor, and does it in a way so true that children will understand it in their bones. And that’s why she’s Kate the Great.
—Booklist (starred review)

DiCamillo's third-person narrative is written in simple words, few exceeding three syllables, yet somehow such modest prose carries the weight of deep meditations on life, death, the soul, friendship, and the meaning of life without ever seeming heavy, and there's even a miracle to boot. Readers will approach the tense and dramatic conclusion and realize how much each word matters. Raymie may not find answers to why the world exists or how the world works, but she can hold onto friends and begin to see more clearly the world as it is...Once again, DiCamillo demonstrates the power of simple words in a beautiful and wise tale.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The girls don’t form an immediate bond, but their initial association of convenience eventually turns into a friendship of understanding and fierce loyalty. After christening the trio the Three Rancheros, Louisiana delivers these prescient words: “We’ll rescue each other.” And in a beautifully layered set of adventures, they do. The limited third-person narration gives Raymie her distinctive voice and spot-on pre-adolescent perspective of a young girl trying to make sense of the world around her. Here DiCamillo returns—triumphantly—to her Winn-Dixie roots.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

In short, precisely crafted chapters, DiCamillo once again demonstrates her ability to create unique characters that touch readers’ hearts. Raymie, in particular, is observant, thoughtful, and sensitive as she struggles to make sense of the world around her. Her story unfolds in uncomplicated prose, even as the themes explored are complex. Surrounded by the fully realized Louisiana and Beverly, not to mention the adults in her town, Raymie searches for meaning, a search that will resonate with readers. Poignant, insightful, and ultimately uplifting.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

From start to finish, Raymie feels her soul alternately shrinking and expanding like an indecisive balloon as she and her new entourage navigate the waters of friendship and heartbreak, love and loss, life and death. Most of the characters in this fine, funny, meticulously crafted novel live life "wishing for things that are gone," but there's certainly no chance that Raymie's lovely and large soul will ever completely shrivel with a "Phhhhtttt."
—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Although this story is fictional, DiCamillo describes it as the true story of her heart...DiCamillo does a wonderful job of allowing readers into the depths of Raymie’s feelings and even into her soul. By the end of the book, readers feel like Raymie, Beverly, and Louisiana are true and lasting friends of their own. It is truly a heart-filled and heartfelt book.
—VOYA

Fans will recognize DiCamillo's unique wry voice as it gives readers vivid images, dizzying ideas, humor, heart-wrenching emotions, and gorgeous, gorgeous language. You all have something to look forward to this April, I promise.
—Huffington Post

DiCamillo writes with her usual easygoing delicacy; the portray- als of the girls are swift, telling, and gentle, with elliptical hints at Beverly’s and especially Louisiana’s homelife challenges (lack of money clearly limits Louisiana’s diet)...While DiCamillo fans will certainly enjoy reading this on their own, it’s also excellent classroom material, encouraging kids to stretch their decoding—and also to realize that even if you don’t get the outcome you want, it’s still possible to find closure.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

It’s an inspired choice, for surely this coming-of-age story is a fairy tale for our times. The young damsels in distress test their courage and rescue one another; and the book closes not with a conventional “happily ever after” but with a shared vision of the world as vast and yet intimately connected.
—Washington Post

DiCamillo, who has just ended her tenure as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, understands that children can handle the tough stuff in fiction–after all, they have to handle problems like divorce, grief, abuse and poverty in real life. And a book like this can help. As Raymie’s neighbor told her before dying, “If you were in a hole that was deep enough and if it was daylight and you looked up at the sky from the very deep hole, you could see stars even though it was the middle of the day.” For children looking up from their own deep holes, the Three Rancheros could be those stars.
—TIME Magazine

Kate DiCamillo seems always to write with an understanding heart and a gentle archness of tone...As the summer progresses, the girls find poignant points of commonality and a surprising comradeship in this wistful, tender, funny novel for readers ages 10 and older.
—The Wall Street Journal

Raymie Nightingale is filled with humor, poignancy, and life-sized lessons. It is predictably unpredictable: a hallmark of DiCamillo’s brilliant writing.
—New York Journal of Books

…though this book is awash in personal tragedies, it’s not a downer. It’s tightly written and full of droll lines and, yes I admit it. It’s meaningful. But the meaning you cull from this book is going to be different for every single reader. Whip smart and infinitely readable, this is DiCamillo at her best.
—A Fuse #8 Production (blog)

"Raymie" is fast and fleet — a crystalline ode to childhood friendship that shines as brightly as anything that DiCamillo has written.
—Chicago Tribune

DiCamillo...wryly captures the adventure and confusion of childhood with a gut-wrenching lack of sentimentality and a razor-sharp wit.
—Star Tribune

Kate DiCamillo shines once again with her latest somewhat autobiographical children’s novel...Their adventures are fraught with conflict and humor, as they try to do good deeds, rescue animals, and even participate in some breaking and entering. Through their zany antics they realize some things are more important than winning a contest, and Raymie discovers happiness and friendship can exist despite unpleasant realities of life.
—School Library Connection

Kate DiCamillo is the author whose books I anticipate with the most delight. I read them over and over. In simple but elegant prose, with grace and great humor, she writes truthfully about the human experience but always with hope. Raymie Nightingale is beautiful, a celebration of life, as are all her books.
—Dean Koontz, bestselling author

Newbery winner DiCamillo at her best.
—People

“Modest” and “tour de force” don’t usually go together, but they perfectly describe this quirky but melancholy coming-of-age novel.
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Raymie Nightingale" is striking for its portrait of 10-year-old Raymie Clarke, who hopes to win the contest and push her father, who has abandoned the family, to come home.
—Orlando Sentinel

While Raymie Nightingale is written for a middle-grade audience, it is a moving novel that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
—Providence Journal

It is an expertly layered and beautifully crafted story with not a wasted word or moment. The characters are living, breathing humans in whose struggles the reader becomes invested. And it’s a novel that shimmers with hope at its close, even if that absent father never actually pulls through.
—Kirkus Reviews (blog)

Readers will once again be treated with a novel that is rich and important on multiple levels by the exceptional writer Kate DiCamillo.
—Books to Borrow...Books to Buy (Kendal A. Rautzhan column)

Everyone should read Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo. It’s a classic tale of friendship, which we can all relate to.
—On Our Minds (Scholastic blog)

DiCamillo's original, loveable characters bring with them a hint of magic and an abundance of humanity and humor.
—News-Gazette

Two-time Newbery Award-winning author Kate DiCamillo has crafted a unique and deeply appealing character in Raymie, and young readers will love watching her finally find a degree of peace.
—A Mighty Girl (blog)

Kate DiCamillo featured promoting summer reading
—Panorama Magazine

From the Publisher

12/01/2016
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.

School Library Journal

Narrator Jenna Lamia’s characterizations are key to the success of this audio production as 10-year-old Raymie hatches a plan to win back her father, who has recently deserted her family. An attempt to win the title of Little Miss Central Florida leads to baton-twirling classes and to making friends with two other girls. Together they become the “three rancheros.” Lamia’s portrayal of introspective, uncertain Raymie contrasts with those of outspoken Beverly Tapinski and soft-spoken storyteller Louisiana Elefante. The adventures of three girls trying to find their places in the world are set in a small town populated by quirky characters. Lamia’s deft sketches, especially those of Raymie’s neighbor, an elderly philosopher, and the comforting receptionist at Raymie’s father’s office, add color to the story. S.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2016 - AudioFile

★ 2016-01-15
Ten-year-old Raymie Clarke of Lister, Florida, has a plan to get her father to come back home. Raymie feels "alone, lost, cast adrift." Her father has run off with a dental hygienist. She is determined to learn how to twirl a baton, win the title of Miss Central Florida Tire 1975, and get her photograph in the newspaper. Her father will see it and be so proud that he'll return home to be with her. Raymie and her quirky new friends, Louisiana Elefante and Beverly Tapinski, have all lost parents and seek ways to move on with their lives and to protect one another along the way. DiCamillo's third-person narrative is written in simple words, few exceeding three syllables, yet somehow such modest prose carries the weight of deep meditations on life, death, the soul, friendship, and the meaning of life without ever seeming heavy, and there's even a miracle to boot. Readers will approach the tense and dramatic conclusion and realize how much each word matters. Raymie may not find answers to why the world exists or how the world works, but she can hold onto friends and begin to see more clearly the world as it is. Raymie's small town is populated by quirky, largely white residents, many of them elderly, all distinct characters in their own rights. Once again, DiCamillo demonstrates the power of simple words in a beautiful and wise tale. (Historical fiction. 9-14)

Kirkus Reviews