Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo

Summary from Goodreads:

Revisiting once again the world of Raymie Nightingale, two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo turns her focus to the tough-talking, inescapably tenderhearted Beverly.

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 mom, 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, #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a character who will break your heart and put it back together again.

Review:

Kate DiCamillo is just the best. Reading her books feels like staying up late to finish a book, under the covers, with a flashlight. Her ability to understand how a young brain works is just nuts. Her characters are living, breathing people who I feel like I know. And I can’t stop thinking about her words, long after finishing reading them.

Raymie Nightingale was a masterpiece. And Louisiana’s Way Home was magical. I wasn’t sure where the author was going to take Beverly, by far the least interesting of the Three Rancheros. But, I should have known better than to think Beverly was not interesting. I loved getting to see the world as she sees it. She feels things so strongly. She sees a line of poetry written in a phone booth and can’t escape the words. She sees a mom being snotty to her child, and saves the day for the child. She builds sand castles to be nice. She hears stories of bullying and feels so intensely what her new friend was feeling.

In other words, I love Beverly. I feel things strongly too. And she felt like a soul sister, who was lost and so desperately needed love. I loved her relationship with Iola, a woman who also so badly needed love. I love all the people who meet Beverly and who understand her. They also feel so strongly about things like a certain shade of blue, or the line of a childhood poem, or a cat who decides to like you.

The writing style is magical. It reads almost like a fairytale with the heroine going on a journey. But, it’s also realistic. Beverly has a terrible mother. And her dog (her only loving family member) died. I couldn’t help but care about her and want her to do well.

This is a book about making your own family. It’s about finding people who understand and love you for who you are. And it’s about growing up and realizing that it’s okay to rely on other people sometimes, and you don’t have to always do everything alone. I smiled, laughed, cried, and eventually clutched this book in a hug. I loved it. I give it a 10/10.