A tale of finding who you are and determining who you want to be coming from two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo.
Louisiana Elefante isn’t very concerned when her grandmother wakes her up in the middle of the night to inform her that the day of reckoning has come and they must leave their house. After all, Granny often gets brilliant ideas in the wee hours. But things are different this time. Granny wants them to go forever and never return. Louisiana fights against the forces of fate (and Granny) in an effort to return home after being separated from her best companions Raymie and Beverly.
Louisiana begins to worry that she is doomed to a life of goodbyes as her life intertwines with that of the residents of a small Georgia town, including a sour motel owner, a walrus-like clergyman, and a mystery lad with a crow on his shoulder. (Which could be caused by the curse placed on Granny’s and Louisiana’s heads. However, that is a tale for another time.)
The heartbreakingly seductive Louisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in Raymie Nightingale, and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story. The New York Times Book Review called Louisiana Elefante “one of DiCamillo’s most distinctive and compelling inventions.”
Quotes
“The world was beautiful. It surprised me, how beautiful it kept on insisting on being. In spite of all the lies, it was beautiful.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Louisiana’s Way Home“What matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down, but who picks us up.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Louisiana’s Way Home