[Book Review] Raymie Nightingale

Title: Raymie Nightingale
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Pages: 263
Genre: Children’s Lit, Coming of Age, Friendship
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Three kids in the 1970s find themselves at baton practice to enter in the Miss Florida Tire competition. But instead of learning baton twirling, they find friendship in each other. This tween book brings together three unique characters in a fast paced setting.

Louisiana, Beverly, and our main girl Raymie are so much fun to read about. Kate DiCamillo actually has a secondary novel called Lousiana’s Way Home and I’m so excited to read it. Kate DiCamillo really showed her writing talent in this novel. Just a note: this book is not really like Little Miss Sunshine. The description makes in seem that way but it really isn’t.

Oh No’s

Ida Nee was a horrible teacher. She never even taught the kids and barely tried. I simply disliked her character as a whole. Maybe she needed more backstory to understand why she is the way she is but how can she just walk away from the kids the way she did?

What type of noise is Phhhttt? This onomatopoeia annoyed me to no end. How would you pronounce this? Pfft? Fffft? Pahhhhhht? I can’t tell! The fact that it was used to much pissed me off even more cause I can’t even pronounce the damn word.

Yay’s

Louisiana was one of the best characters I have read in a while. She is very reminiscent of Pinkie Pie from My little Pony. Random but you will understand. I’m even more happy when I found our that the sequel novel is going to be all about her! She was such a unique and bubbly character who’s backstory is so tragic that you can’t help but feel for her. I love her to bits.

Bumping off of Louisiana, just the general depth these girls have is amazing. Each one has their own lives and stories that are somehow melded together and work well with each other. They understood one another perfectly. I also felt that they were written to compliment one another.

Also, there were so many settings and characters in this story. One problem I have with a lot of YA books is the limited characters but in this short book there was such a plethora I felt each page introtroced something new. But then in the next page we would circle back around and reconnect it or then with an earlier memory

Finally,

I want to make is perfectly clear that I absolutely love this book. It was so concise and astounding. The first few chapters put me off because of the quick writing but you easily jump into this world and it just takes off. The adventures these girls have are so many. I also got this book signed by Kate DiCamillo at her autographing at Bookcon!

Favorite Quote

“It’s written in the book in my head…And that’s sometimes better than the actual book. And by that, I mean that sometimes I read the words I want to be there instead of the words that are actually there.”

Pg. 206

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-PM