Raymie Nightingale

Raymie Nightingale is a 2016 middle grade novel by two-time Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo. The novel was a National Book Award finalist in the year of its publication. Set in Florida in the summer of 1975, it tells the story of 10-year-old Raymie Clark as she copes with loss and forms a deep friendship that helps her and her new friends in unexpected ways.

Plot Summary

Raymie Clark is determined to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire pageant as a way to lure back her father, who has just run off with a dental hygienist. She believes that if she wins the contest her father will see her face in the paper, realize his terrible mistake, and return home. To win the pageant, Raymie needs to perform a talent for the judges. With the encouragement of her father’s kind secretary, Mrs. Sylvester, Raymie decides to learn baton twirling and enrolls in twirling lessons with former baton champion Ida Nee.

In Ida Nee’s backyard, Raymie meets Beverly Tapinski and Louisiana Elefante, two young girls who are also taking lessons and entering the same pageant. Beverly is already an expert twirler and is only taking lessons at the insistence of her abusive mother. Beverly’s father abandoned her and moved to New York when she was young. With no real interest in winning, Beverly is determined to sabotage the pageant, both to get herself out of it and to get back at her mother. Beverly has run away twice before, trying to get to New York. She is a fearless, streetwise young girl, but over time the others see the loyal friend beneath her tough protective shell.

Louisiana, an orphan, lives in poverty with her eccentric but loving grandmother. Despite her tragic losses, Louisiana is optimistic, imaginative, and hopeful. According to Louisiana, her parents were famous trapeze artists who died when their ship sank. Her fantastical imagination helps her to cope with her past tragedies. Her main goal is to get her grandmother and herself out of poverty by winning the pageant prize money.

Raymie, who is an anxious and sensitive girl, suffers more loss after her father leaves. Her devastated mother struggles to cope with her father’s absence, leaving Raymie without support at home. Then her beloved elderly neighbor, Mrs. Borkowski, who Raymie could talk to about everything, dies of a heart attack. The other adult role model in Raymie’s life, her lifesaving coach, left town a few months earlier. Raymie, like Louisiana and Beverly, is left searching for guidance and support.

Ida Nee is dealing with issues of her own and has no patience with the three girls. She storms out of each lesson in frustration, leaving the unlikely threesome alone. The girls form a strong friendship, and as the bond grows, Louisiana names their little group “the Three Rancheros.”

In addition to performing a talent, the pageant requires each contestant to perform a good deed. Raymie decides that her good deed with be reading to elderly residents at a nursing home. She takes her library book, The Life of Florence Nightingale, to the Golden Glen nursing home. The first resident Raymie tries to read to has no interest in the book, so Raymie gathers all her courage and decides to read to Alice Nebbley, another resident whom Raymie has heard screaming and crying out for help. Raymie’s anxieties overcome her, and she drops the book in Alice’s room before fleeing Golden Glen in panic. Too afraid to venture back on her own, Raymie recruits Beverly and Louisiana to help her. Beverly retrieves the book and reveals her softer side, showing kindness and compassion to Alice. While Beverly is in Alice’s room, Louisiana frees a caged bird kept at the nursing home. This is the first of several missions the Three Rancheros go on together.

The next mission is to rescue Archie, Louisiana’s beloved cat. Louisiana believes Archie is alive in Building 10, a kill shelter. Despite being convinced that Archie has been put to sleep, Beverly and Raymie agree to go on a rescue mission with Louisiana. The girls meet after midnight and break into the shelter, bringing an old shopping cart to transport Archie in. Inside the depressing shelter, the girls find only one stray dog and a lot of empty cages. Louisiana is heartbroken but still believes that Archie is alive. The girls rescue the dog, a smelly mutt with one good eye and floppy ears who instantly bonds with the girls. Too tired and sad to walk, Louisiana climbs into the shopping cart together with the dog, and Raymie and Beverly start to push the cart home.

At the top of a hill, with a view of their town, Raymie and Beverly lose control of the cart. The shopping cart rolls down the hill and, on reaching the bottom, catapults Louisiana and the dog into a pond. Raymie knows Louisiana can’t swim and without hesitation dives in to rescue her. At that moment, Raymie realizes her purpose in life. She feels like Raymie Nightingale, strong, self-confident, and able to save her friend. The girls take Louisiana to the hospital, where Louisiana’s grandmother and Raymie’s and Beverly’s mothers meet them. Beverly adopts the dog, and as predicted by Louisiana, Archie the cat also shows up alive and well.

While Louisiana is recovering at the hospital, Raymie tells the entire story to reporters who have heard about the rescue. The story is published in the newspaper along with Raymie’s picture. Raymie’s father sees the picture, and just as she has been longing for, he calls. However, as soon as she hears his voice, she realizes that she has nothing to say, and neither does he.

While the girls have been getting to know each other on a deeper level, both Beverly and Raymie have decided to drop out of the contest in favor of supporting Louisiana. They encourage her to sing at the contest instead of baton twirling. Louisiana wins the contest and the much-needed prize money, but all three girls have won the greatest prize of all, unconditional friendship.