In all of Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo's middle-grade fiction (Flora & Ulysses; The Tale of Despereaux), it's the emotional undercurrents that carry the story. In Raymie Nightingale--the author's most autobiographical novel to date--one powerful undertow is 10-year-old Raymie Clarke's determination to bring her errant dad back home.
Raymie is taking baton-twirling lessons for one reason only: she wants to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire contest. If she does win, her father, who ran off with a dental hygienist ("like the dish ran away with the spoon," she thinks), will see a photograph of her newly crowned self in the newspaper and promptly return to her and her mom.
Two contest competitors are in Raymie's class: the gruff Beverly Tapinski, who is not to be messed with, and the dreamy Louisiana Elefante, who is sick with "swampy lungs" but sings like an angel, especially the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." (This is the summer of 1975.) They have contest agendas, too. Louisiana wants the prize money so she and her tiny grandmother can stop stealing food and "never be terrified again." Beverly wants to sabotage the contest because she hates "spangly things" and is sick of her mother forcing her to perform in endless competitions.
On the Little Miss contest application, the girls must list any good deeds they might have done. Raymie can't think of a thing, so she asks her ancient neighbor Mrs. Borkowski, who's known for dispensing wisdom, such as the notion that most people waste their souls by letting them shrivel. ("Phhhhtttt" is evidently the sound soul-shriveling makes.) Unfortunately, Mrs. Borkowski is no help at all. Raymie turns next to Mrs. Sylvester, her father's secretary, who recommends reading "a suitable book" to the elderly as a possible good deed.
Raymie chooses a dull-looking library book about Florence Nightingale and ventures forth. Golden Glen Nursing Home is a nightmare. Like a character in a campfire ghost story, one of the elderly residents repeatedly screams "Take my hand!" Raymie dares to enter Room 323 of the terrible voice, but as the woman reaches for her, she jumps and drops her library book. She is too traumatized to retrieve it... and runs.
Desperate to get the book back, Raymie enlists the help of the fearless Beverly, and then Louisiana, who suddenly decides their baton-twirling trio should be called the "Three Rancheros." "We'll rescue each other," Louisiana says.
The Little Miss contest does take place as scheduled, but by that time Raymie Nightingale has become the buoyant, poignant story of how three heavy-hearted girls band together to help each other with their respective, ever-evolving missions. DiCamillo's fabulous cast of eccentric characters--including Mrs. Sylvester, who talks like a cartoon bird and believes in candy corn, feeding swans and happy endings--makes for a hugely entertaining parade.
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." --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness
Shelf Talker: Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo's seventh novel stars 10-year-old Raymie, whose plot to get her father back yields surprising results.