Raymie Nightingale

Raymie Clarke’s father left town with a dental hygienist. Raymie is sure that if she wins Little Miss Central Florida Tire, her father will come home to her and her mother. In order to win Little Miss Central Florida Tire though, Raymie needs to learn how to twirl a baton and its at her baton twirling lessons where Raymie meets two other girls hoping to win Little Miss Central Florida Tire: whimsical Louisiana Elefante and saboteur Beverly Tapinski. Over the course of the summer, the three girls bond over the sadness in each of their lives.

In my opinion, the best way to talk about RAYMIE NIGHTINGALE is to pretend that Kate DiCamillo didn’t write it. That way, bias can be set aside. DiCamillo has a well-earned following. THE TIGER RISING and BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE are widely studied in elementary classrooms across the country. She has multiple Newbery Medals and Honors to her name. She’s a talented wordsmith and storyteller. But does that mean RAYMIE NIGHTINGALE is any good?

When you discover that you are not the ideal reader for a book, it seems a little unfair to continue reading it with a critical eye. DiCamillo’s fans will undoubtedly adore this book. I can’t say that I did. Maybe it’s because I keep trying to imagine Raymie, Louisiana, and Beverly in my 5th grade classroom. I can’t imagine them fitting in socially with many other kids. This is why they are drawn to each other. They are equally quirky and desperate. Sure, the friendship they form is sweet, but it’s also clunky and convenient. Their lives are filled with sadness and the resolution of the story brings no real closure to their glum situations. They call themselves the “Three Rancheros,” but I’m not sure if they actually like each other, or if they are just forced to because they have no one else.

This was probably DiCamillo’s point, and if the plot of this story would not have been so thin I could have forgiven the similarly drawn characters, but events transpire for the sake of the story and not in a genuine fashion. I found myself caring for the characters only because they were drawn so sad and not because of their development or depth.

There is no question that DiCamillo is one of the best, but this sad little story of convenient friendship doesn't compare to her other accomplished work.

Boys of Blur

I have always wanted to like N. D. Wilson, the author. I loved the language of LEEPIKE RIDGE and 100 CUPBOARDS and I wanted to enjoy those books more than I did. For some reason, I could barely trudge through those stories though. So much awesome prose, but so much confusion in plot. Wilson has a wildly descriptive voice that can at times, clutter up his narrative. He trusts that his readers are smart enough to infer details left out but with such wordy prose, that is not always easy to do.

While BOYS OF BLUR is similar to the unique style of prose in his other works, I have finally found an N. D. Wilson novel I can get behind! BOYS OF BLUR is a tour de force!

In Taper, FL, among the burning fields of sugar cane, football is life. BOYS OF BLUR begins with the funeral of historic Taper football coach Willie Wisdom. Coach Wisdom's death has affected everyone in the community. Charlie Reynolds is in town with his mom's new boyfriend Mack (one of Coach Wisdom's former players) for the funeral and Charlie can't help but notice his mother's uneasy looks and nervous apprehension. For Charlie's family, a return to Taper means a return to the place they left Charlie's abusive father. When Mack receives an offer too important to turn down, Charlie may be forced to remain in Taper for the time being. Little does he know, the community of Taper will soon need Charlie to save them from a muddy, deep rooted evil.

The setting in BOYS OF BLUR is one of the novel's biggest strengths to me. Wilson takes his time developing the southern setting and soon, he pulls you in among the burning cane and swampy muck and just like Mack, you feel compelled to stay. Of course the fantasy elements of the story are foreshadowed and hinted at early on, to entice readers, but the early pages of this book are entirely devoted to Taper and Charlie's family unit. This grounds the story in reality and makes the final epic resolution all the more convincing.

I was also impressed with Wilson's handling of Coach Wisdom's character. Often times, authors will introduce readers to a character that they wish to write as "larger than life." Coach Wisdom truly is larger than life. Everyone in Taper has a story to tell about Coach Wisdom and each story is unique to the character. He has impacted the lives of many young men in Taper, none more than Mack. At one point this is evident when Mack tells Charlie about Charlie's father:

"Your father made mistakes. We all do. But instead of working to set things right, he chose to protect those mistakes - he let them be. He even fed them, which made them so much worse. Mistakes don't just hang on the wall like ugly pictures. Mistakes are seeds." He thumped his chest. "In here. They grow. They take over. You make a mistake, you gotta make it right. Dig that seed out. Old Wiz used to say, 'Fruit rots, wood rots, but lazy-ass boys rot the fastest.'"

I like how Coach Wisdom develops as a character, even after his death. Furthermore, it was fun to watch Charlie grow throughout the story. His transformation from being wide-eyed and curious to becoming a sword-wielding hero was very heartbreaking but convincing.

BOYS OF BLUR may not be for everyone what it was for me. The fantasy elements may not interest every reader and the south Florida setting and Creole lore may be too specific to generate wide appeal. But you cannot deny Wilson's talent. No one writes prose like N.D. Wilson. I can also appreciate a solo effort (everyone writes fantasy trilogies these days) and fitting it all in under 200 pages is impressive as well!

Junonia

I was a little leery of this Kevin Henkes novel for a couple of reasons. First, I believe Henkes is at his best when he's writing picture books about talking mice, kittens, gardens, and rabbits. Second, the few times I have read a novel of his I've been disappointed. OLIVE'S OCEAN and BIRD LAKE MOON were both depressingly dark and dreary. If LILLY'S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE, KITTEN'S FIRST MOON, and other picture book and early readers are his Summer Blockbusters of sorts, it feels like his novels are his creative, moody Indie flicks!

In JUNONIA, nine-year old Alice Rice travels from Wisconsin with her family to their vacation cottage on Sandibel Island in Florida. It's a trip Alice looks forward to every year and this year is no exception. Especially since Alice will be celebrating her tenth birthday with the summer "family" she's come to love. However when Alice discovers that many of the regular vacationers the family spends each summer with are not coming this year, she begins to worry that her special tenth birthday won't be so special after all.

On the surface, JUNONIA is a simple, quick read, with larger than normal text and only 176 pages of story. By story's end however, a lot of big ideas wash to shore. In a way, JUNONIA is about the loss of innocence. The moment in a child's life when they begin to realize they are outgrowing certain common comforts. Alice realizes this as she makes her way through a beachy graveyard at one point in the story, and ponders some of life's biggest questions (as only a ten-year old could). Of course the presence of the younger, more immature, Mallory forces Alice to behave and reason in a more grown-up way . . . but I felt that Alice was aware of these feelings the moment she stepped foot on Florida sand, long before Mallory even entered the picture.

One thing I've learned in seven years of teaching is that kids are thinkers. Their minds are always soaking in details and processing information and reacting to that information in one way or another. Kids are selfish, yet sensitive by nature and knowing how to react to all sorts of new feelings is not something they know how to do. One thing Henkes does so well in JUNONIA is depict how jumbled of a process this can be. Poor Alice is confused and frustrated and sad about so many things, and sorting out all of these feelings is new territory for her. Luckily she has a mother and a father who have the ability to read her face like a book and shown her the joy and release that can be found in letting go of things and accepting other people for who they are. So much in this book leaves Alice at a loss for words though, and Henkes does a marvelous job of portraying this.

I enjoyed JUNONIA. It's much more light-hearted than some of Henkes' more recent novels and the text has an airy, island feel to it. I loved the different descriptions of the many shells Alice collects and didn't even realize that there are so many different kinds of shells. In the end, I had hoped for a little more closure on Mallory and her situation, but I understand that this is Alice's story. Maybe down the road, Henkes will want to follow up on Mallory, but I'm afraid that story could only be a return to the dark and depressing Henkes I wasn't ever fond of. So for now, I'll appreciate JUNONIA for the junonia shell that it is.

Final Grade: B+