What attracted you to set a story in this time period? PLO: This novel evokes what it was like to grow up in the 1970s–the girls enjoy a largely unmonitored existence, they take baton-twirling classes, and they get transported around town in a wood-paneled station wagon that would probably fail modern emissions tests. Like Raymie, I see the darkness, but I’m also deeply, passionately hopeful. maybe because that balance is part of how I see the world. KD: I didn’t think too much about that balance. What was the challenge of balancing the story’s darker topics with its light tone? PLO: While Raymie Nightingale is heartwarming and very funny, it deals frankly with topics like abandonment, domestic violence, death, and foster care. It was wonderful to capture that on the page, to pay tribute to those friendships. KD: I have been so fortunate (as a kid and as an adult) to have deep, abiding friendships that have sustained me. What was it like to explore the dynamics of these relationships? PLO: You’ve written characters in the similar age range as the girls in Raymie Nightingale, but this is the first time you’ve written explicitly about the friendships among pre-teen girls. But it tells the emotional truth: of loss and friendship and faith and hope. My father left the family when I was a kid and Raymie’s father has left the family. It is set in Central Florida in the mid-seventies, and I grew up in Central Florida in the mid-seventies. Kate DiCamillo: This book has certain autobiographical elements. Public Libraries Online: You’ve referred to this book as “the absolute true story of my heart.” What did you mean by that? Brendan Dowling spoke to Kate DiCamillo via email on May 9th, 2016. At its heart is the title character, who leaps off the page with her resilience and ingenuity. Focused on a trio of ten year-old girls who–for very different reasons–have all entered the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, Raymie Nightingale follows the girls’ exploits through baton-twirling classes, an animal shelter break-in, and a reconnaissance mission at a nursing home. Her most recent work, Raymie Nightingale, is sure to be similarly embraced by fans and critics alike. That book was named a Newbery Honor book in 2001, while her later books The Tale of Desperaux and Flora and Ulysses both won the Newbery Award. Kate DiCamillo has been a favorite of young adult readers since the publication of her first novel, Because of Winn Dixie.
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