*Starred Review* As 10-year-old Raymie tells it, the only way to bring back her father, who has run away with a dental hygienist, is to become 1975's Little Miss Central Florida Tire. Surely when he sees her photo in the newspaper, he will come home. But first Raymie must learn to twirl a baton, which is how she comes to be at a twirling lesson flanked by world-weary, subversive Beverly Tapinski and fabulist Louisiana Elefante, a girl stronger than her penchant for fainting would make her seem. DiCamillo's terse third-person narrative chronicles the everyday agonies of her characters, which include testy old women, a comforting insurance clerk, a swim coach with the secret of life, and two indomitable animals: one dog, one cat. Leaving behind the more fantastical surroundings she brought to The Tale of Despereaux (2003) and The Magician's Elephant (2009), DiCamillo returns to her southern roots and, in some ways, to her own story (albeit a perhaps more adventurous version), as the girls somehow figure out how to save the world or at least their own. 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 she does it in a way so true that children will understand it in their bones. And that's why she is Kate the Great. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Books by the two-time Newbery medalist and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature are always publishing events, and this will be no exception.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2016 Booklist

When ten-year-old Raymie Clarkes father runs away with a dental hygienist, Raymie has no idea how to take charge of her life. Her mothers no help, and her fathers secretary simply assures her that most things work out right in the end. So, remembering the advice of last summers life-saving class instructor, Raymie vows to become a problem solver rather than a problem causer. She will enter the (1975) Little Miss Central Florida Tire contest, win, get her name in the paper, and astonish her father, who will hurry home filled with pride. Lacking any marketable talent, she enrolls in baton lessons and there meets two other girls with their eyes on the same prize. Orphaned and fragile, Louisiana Elefante desperately needs the winners money; hard-as-nails Beverly Tapinski wants to sabotage the contest and, consequently, her overbearing mother. The girls dont 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: Well 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 returnstriumphantlyto her Winn-Dixie roots. betty carter (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Set in 1975, DiCamillo's tender novel tells the story of three very different girls who become fast friends while partaking in the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition. Raymie's father recently ran off with a dental hygienist, and she hopes if she wins, it will somehow make him come back; Louisiana is an orphan who lives with her grandmother and gets through hardships with made-up stories and fantasies; Beverly is streetwise and angry at the world. They end up having some oddball adventures, involving trying to retrieve a lost library book and rescue a cat, and in the process learn about supporting friends and dealing with painful losses. Narrator Lamia's warm, compassionate reading perfectly fits the uplifting tale, and she uses her voice to bring out the many humorous and quirky moments. All the characters have Southern accents, yet Lamia is able to give each a distinctive and memorable voice that reflects each character's personality; for example, Louisiana sounds dreamy and vulnerable, whereas Beverly sounds tough as nails. Lamia is the perfect narrator for this bittersweet yet ultimately comforting audiobook. Ages 10-up. A Candlewick hardcover. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

PERHAPS THE SINCEREST aim of any fairy tale is not to introduce young readers to the quixotic pleasures of magic and fantasy but rather to initiate all readers into life's unspeakable verities: Parents desert families, orphaned children often go hungry, and even the most loyal beloveds are capable of astonishing acts of betrayal. Early on in Kate DiCamillo's captivating new novel, "Raymie Nightingale," we learn about an older woman who regularly feeds a bevy of swans, seeming "like something out of a fairy tale." Ten-year-old Raymie Clarke, an anxious heroine, considers the possibility that it's "a fairy tale that hadn't been told yet." That's an irresistible promise to begin a novel with, and DiCamillo is up to the challenge. 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. Set during the summer of 1975, "Raymie Nightingale" features an unlikely threesome of girls who bond over a series of disastrous baton-twirling lessons as they prepare to vie for the fantastic title of Little Miss Central Florida Tire. Raymie, fretful and sensitive, hopes to win the crown, become famous and lure her father, who has run away with a dental hygienist, back home. Louisiana Elefante, an angelic-looking orphan living with her grandmother in penury, sets her wide eyes on the prize money - confident that the winnings will keep her out of the county home and the clutches of the mysterious Marsha Jean. Beverly Tapinski, the unflappable, streetwise daughter of a former beauty queen and a New York City cop, is committed to sabotaging the entire pageant. Louisiana dubs the girls "the Three Rancheros," and with their every misadventure and escapade, the Rancheros pledge to rescue one another from their troubled lives. DiCamillo, a former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and the author of the Newbery Honor book "Because of Winn-Dixie" as well as two Newbery Medal winners, "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Flora and Ulysses," has returned to her Florida roots and to the careful handling of such thorny issues as loneliness and parental desertion. In "Raymie Nightingale," 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. Along the way, the Three Rancheros search for a missing library book about Florence Nightingale (inspiring the book's title); steal a baton; discover the whereabouts of a missing, beloved cat; and develop a tender but hard-earned friendship. Louisiana Elefante, who may or may not be the daughter of famous trapeze artists, is one of DiCamillo's most singular and arresting creations. With "swampy lungs" and an untamed warren of multiplying bunny rabbit barrettes, Louisiana delights on every page. When Louisiana asks her new friends, "Have you ever in your life come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on you?" the reader understands not only her sorrow but also the vibrant powers of her imagination. Then there is Beverly Tapinski, who makes twirling a baton "look easy and impossible at the same time" and has already run away from home and made it as far as Atlanta. She is jaded and unimpressed by adult wisdom, yet when she lies about the origins of her black eye and beats the gravel with her new baton, it is impossible not to feel her vulnerability along with the quake of her anger and the fierceness of her still-developing strength. But it is Raymie Clarke, with her ever-expanding soul, her pluck and fortitude, who succeeds at something far bigger than any Little Miss competition. Though Raymie's absent father ironically sells family insurance - his receptionist answers the phone with "Clarke Family Insurance. How may we protect you?" - DiCamillo tackles the ever-present uncertainty of whether any family can be protected from separation or disaster. By learning to make new friends and to trust in her friendships, Raymie comes into a powerful sense of self-knowledge. She is a terrific model for young readers and adult readers alike. 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. AMBER DERMONT, an associate professor of English at Rice University, is the author of "The Starboard Sea" and "Damage Control."