LoveReading4Kids Says
This is a return to the characters of Di Camillo’s Raymie Nightingale and Louisiana’s Way Home – though it is not necessary to have read either novel to appreciate this story. Precipitated by the death of her dog companion, Buddy, Beverly has no reason now to stay at home, so she leaves. She is 14 years old, but by a sequence of good luck, and a lift from a cousin, she ends up in Tamaray, bunking with a grandmother figure in a trailer park community and getting a job with a very disorganised café owner.
This story could have been very bleak, but the wonderful characters DiCamillo draws, and the humour with which she tells this story make it very engaging. Obviously set in the US this gives the landscape an exotic feel, and the characters have a wonderfully transatlantic humour that can be appreciated anywhere. This is the story of Beverly’s survival, and the rebuilding of her grief battered resilient character – so she can eventually return to her hometown, her close friend and her less than satisfactory mother. An ultimately uplifting story of survival, acceptance and friendship in unlikely places.
Tricia Adams
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Beverly, Right Here Synopsis
Revisiting once again the world of Raymie Nightingale and Louisiana's Way Home, No.1 New York Timesbestselling author Kate DiCamillo turns her focus to the tough-talking, inescapably tenderhearted Beverly Tapinski.
Beverly put her foot down on the gas. They went faster still.
This was what Beverly wanted - what she always wanted. To get away. To get away as fast as she could. To stay away.
Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it's not running away ... it's leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mum, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn't want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn't want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can't help forming connections with the people around her - and, gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. In a touching, funny and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a character who will break your heart and put it back together again.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781406391237 |
| Publication date: |
2nd April 2020 |
| Author: |
Kate DiCamillo |
| Publisher: |
Walker Books Ltd an imprint of Walker Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
248 pages |
| Series: |
Three Rancheros |
| Suitable For: |
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Kate DiCamillo Press Reviews
DiCamillo 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 called Kate the Great. - Booklist
Praise for Raymie Nightingale:
“DiCamillo’s prose is resolutely unflashy. […] But in her simple writing there is the weight of acuity, seen in her ability to inhabit the perspective of a child fumbling to understand ‘the list of impossible, unanswerable questions’ that she has about the adult world.” The Daily Telegraph
“The nice short chapters are the first thing that will make this touching book appear less daunting to struggling readers, and once kids get stuck in, it’s a real page-turner about love and loss.” The Independent
“As wise and tough and funny as it is beautiful; this book is a reminder that courage comes in many different forms. I loved it.” Katherine Rundell
“A touching story about love and loss.” Jacqueline Wilson
Praise for Louisiana's Way Home:
“Her characterisation is phenomenally rich and this story is so addictive you forget there are pages that need turning. [Kate DiCamillo] deserves to have a shelf space in homes everywhere.” The Times, Children’s Book of the Week
“DiCamillo writes with extraordinary sensitivity and perception, and readers of all ages will be touched and moved by Louisiana’s story.” LoveReading
“This is a beautifully written story – funny and moving – exploring some tough perceptions about the adult world and coming to terms with shortcomings and strengths. The simple text and short chapters will make this easily accessible to the young reader but there is a keenness of thought and sharp insights into life that make it appropriate for the older reader too.” The School Librarian
“A poignant and unforgettable story of discovering who you are and who you want to be.” The Bookseller
About Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo’s writing journey has been a truly remarkable one. She grew up in Florida and moved to Minnesota in her twenties, when homesickness and a bitter winter led her to write Because of WinnDixie – her first published novel, which became a runaway bestseller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. The Tiger Rising, her second novel, was also set in Florida and went on to become a National Book Award finalist. Since then, the bestselling author has explored settings as varied as a medieval castle and a magician’s theatre while continuing to enjoy great success, winning two Newbery Medals and being named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She now has almost 30 million books in print worldwide.
In 2016, Kate DiCamillo published her most autobiographical novel to date, Raymie Nightingale, which was a National Book Award finalist. And then, for the first time ever, she returned to the world of a previous novel in Louisiana’s Way Home to tell us more about a character that her fans already knew and loved. That novel garnered seven starred reviews and was, like its predecessor, a #1 New York Times bestseller. And now Kate DiCamillo returns once more to complete the Three Rancheros’ stories by writing a book about toughas-nails Beverly Tapinski.
Kate DiCamillo’s books’ themes of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances and their messages of shared humanity and connectedness have resonated with readers of all ages around the world. 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. The Magician’s Elephant, an acclaimed and exquisitely paced fable, dares to ask the question What if ? And Kate DiCamillo’s second Newbery Medal winner, Flora & Ulysses, was released in 2013 to great acclaim, garnering five starred reviews and an instant spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
Born in Philadelphia but raised in the South, Kate DiCamillo now lives in Minneapolis.
A Q&A with Kate Di Camillo:
You made the decision to write Louisiana’s story after her relentless voice consumed your notebooks. What made you want to write a novel about Beverly? Was there a voice, quote, or image that came to you that set her story in motion?
Well, it’s odd. Beverly’s voice was relentless, too, but in a much less dramatic way than Louisiana’s. Telling Beverly’s story was like crouching in the woods with my hand out, hoping that a wild animal would come and eat out of my hand. I could feel her presence; I knew she wanted to speak. But I had to hold very, very still. And wait. The story started with the simple, declarative sentence “Buddy died.” And everything, all of it, unspooled from that.
Once again you have created a novel that deals very pointedly with parental abandonment, and Beverly’s situation is possibly the most dire in all of your books. Is that theme still difficult to explore, or do you find you have more courage now than ever to tackle these kinds of raw and difficult truths?
These “difficult truths” show up in my stories no matter what I do. I have, in recent years, I suppose, turned and faced them more head-on, more directly. I am haunted by parental abandonment, and so it keeps showing up in my stories.
If Raymie Nightingale was the true story of your heart and Louisiana’s Way Home was a return to storytelling in the style of Because of Winn-Dixie, what is the personal impetus or connection for you to Beverly, Right Here?
Beverly is so much braver than I am. I wanted to leave and I couldn’t. Beverly does. Every time Beverly showed up in Raymie’s story, I was impressed by her ferocity, her tenderness, her utter lack of regard for the rules. She was the kind of kid I wanted to be. She is the kind of young adult I wanted to be.
More About Kate DiCamillo
