{"product_id":"louisianas-way-home-isbn-9780763694630","title":"Louisiana's Way Home","description":"\u003cb\u003eA #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller!\u003cbr\u003eAs featured on The Today Show’s Read with Jenna Jr. Book Club\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling story of discovering who you are — and deciding who you want to be.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Louisiana Elefante’s granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home immediately, Louisiana isn’t overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return. Separated from her best friends, Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana’s life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of a small Georgia town — including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister, and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder — she starts to worry that she is destined only for good-byes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana's and Granny’s heads. But that is a story for another time.) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalled “one of DiCamillo’s most singular and arresting creations” by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, \u003c\/i\u003ethe heartbreakingly irresistible\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eLouisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in\u003ci\u003e Raymie Nightingale \u003c\/i\u003e— and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story.Louisiana, with her quick, insightful takes on everyone she meets, grabbed readers’ hearts in ‘Raymie Nightingale,’ and in this book she isn’t about to let go. Though her life has been filled with hardship and uncertainty — and there are more painful secrets to come — she continues to operate with a sense of wonder and practical optimism (the pages shine with it).\u003cbr\u003e—The New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo offers a master class in how to tell and shape a story once all fat has been cut away. Though set in the mid-1970s, there’s \u003cb\u003efairy-tale quality\u003c\/b\u003e to this, with heroes, helpers, villains, and one princess looking for home.\u003cbr\u003e—Booklist (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReaders who first encountered Louisiana in Raymie Nightingale (2016) will be heartened to learn more about her...For readers who relish thoughtfully constructed plots, well-developed characters, and carefully crafted language, this will be \u003cb\u003ea special treat\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo builds a resilient and sympathetic character in Louisiana, and the juxtaposition of her down-to-earth observations with Granny’s capriciousness lightens the narrative and allows for a good deal of humor...The overarching themes addressing forgiveness, love, friendship, acceptance, home, and family (“Perhaps what matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up”) ring honest and true.\u003cbr\u003e—The Horn Book (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePopulated with \u003cb\u003eunforgettable characters\u003c\/b\u003e, including kindhearted adults who recognize Louisiana’s dire situation and offer options, this bittersweet novel shows a deep understanding of children’s emotions and celebrates their resiliency. Readers will feel as much empathy for Louisiana as they did for her friend Raymie.\u003cbr\u003e—Publishers Weekly (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo is able to address complex topics in an accessible and \u003cb\u003eultimately hopeful\u003c\/b\u003e way. There is never sadness without comfort, fear without consolation. Louisiana’s soul-searching is no exception and further solidifies DiCamillo’s reputation as a skilled storyteller who trusts her readers to wrestle with hard things. A\u003cb\u003e thoughtful and finely written\u003c\/b\u003e story that earns its place among DiCamillo’s other beloved novels.\u003cbr\u003e—School Library Journal (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tale is...\u003cb\u003egently told\u003c\/b\u003e, as much fairy tale as realistic story, in language that’s lovely in its plainspoken illuminations, with the focus on Louisiana’s longing for connection and observations about the people she encounters on the road and in the small 1970s Georgia town. Ultimately this is a deeply sweet but not saccharine take on the old story of an orphan child lost and found, and readers won’t have to know the first book to bond with Louisiana and wish fervently for her to find a home.\u003cbr\u003e—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo's funny and hugely likable Louisiana has a marvelous way with words and a spirit that will not rest until she finds her way home, wherever that may be…Louisiana, one of the trio of friends from Kate DiCamillo's \u003ci\u003eRaymie Nightingale\u003c\/i\u003e, returns in her own \u003cb\u003ebeautiful, bittersweet\u003c\/b\u003e middle-grade stand-alone about finding her home... and herself.\u003cbr\u003e—Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this \u003cb\u003efunny yet philosophical melodrama\u003c\/b\u003e, 12-year old Louisiana Elefante recalls her identity crisis, forced when eccentric Granny claims “a date with destiny.\"...Disparate elements miraculously mesh — stars, smiles, magic, bologna sandwiches, a pet crow and cakes. Here, a two-time Newbery award winner brilliantly guides the dear Louisiana through lies, secrets, anger and abandonment and toward understanding, belonging, gratitude and forgiveness.\u003cbr\u003e—San Francisco Chronicle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlmost effortlessly, DiCamillo explores some of the biggest, most important questions of life — What is home? What is family? Who decides what kind of person we get to be? — in this deceivingly simple and \u003cb\u003eprofoundly moving\u003c\/b\u003e novel.\u003cbr\u003e—Star Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo peoples her tale with \u003cb\u003ecolorful, unforgettable characters\u003c\/b\u003e, although brave, thoughtful, kind Louisiana is the most memorable of all. Young as she is, Louisiana knows to appreciate rare moments of grace and kindness (\"there is goodness in many hearts\": the gas station clerk who gives her free bags of peanuts, a woman in the dentist's waiting room who gives her a tin of chocolate chip cookies), and she understands the healing power of forgiveness.\u003cbr\u003e—Buffalo News\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘You are not alone in the world,’ reads the grandmother’s farewell letter in ‘Louisiana’s Way Home’ (Candlewick, 227 pages, $16.99), Kate DiCamillo’s \u003cb\u003etender, sorrowful, life-embracing\u003c\/b\u003e sequel to her 2016 novel, ‘Raymie Nightingale.’\u003cbr\u003e—The Wall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis \u003cb\u003epoignant \u003c\/b\u003estory of loss echoes with themes of hope and redemption.\u003cbr\u003e—World Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo's genius is finding comedy in tragedy, humanity in darkness. Here, the spirited Louisiana Elefante meets loss head on and finds a way home.\u003cbr\u003e—Scholastic Teacher\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Kate DiCamillo’s beautiful follow-up to \u003ci\u003eRaymie Nightingale,\u003c\/i\u003e Louisiana Elefante is back...The book strikes a delicate balance between relating a charming, entertaining story full of colorful characters and imparting\u003cb\u003e a deeply meaningful life lesson \u003c\/b\u003eabout deciding what kind of person to be.\u003cbr\u003e—ForeWord Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiCamillo reveals the strength and fight in Louisiana...once again Louisiana finds just the right people to help ground her.\u003cbr\u003e—NPR Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a \u003cb\u003emarvelous \u003c\/b\u003ebook, full of heart but without a drop of cheap sentimentality. . . . What a pleasure it is to read a story in which the author’s faith in the goodness of ‘average’ people is set forth with such vigor and confidence. This \u003cb\u003ecelebration of kindness\u003c\/b\u003e is itself a kindness to the reader and an encouragement to hope.\u003cbr\u003e—Dean Koontz, bestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI really really like \u003ci\u003eLouisiana’s Way Home\u003c\/i\u003e, a\u003cb\u003e slim, handsome\u003c\/b\u003e novel about grace.\u003cbr\u003e—Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (blog)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI will read anything Kate DiCamillo writes; the two-time Newbery medalist never disappoints with her stories for younger readers. Her latest\u003cb\u003e finely-crafted\u003c\/b\u003e tale follows 12-year-old Louisiana Elefante through an \u003cb\u003eunforgettable \u003c\/b\u003efable about grace, hardships and discovery.\u003cbr\u003e—Aspen Daily News\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s hard to imagine this story being told in any other way than through the words and unique viewpoint of Louisiana herself. The characters wouldn’t come to life in the same way, the setting would be ordinary, and the plot might not be compelling.\u003cbr\u003e—Heavy Medal (blog)\u003cb\u003eKate DiCamillo \u003c\/b\u003eis one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal, for \u003ci\u003eThe Tale of Despereaux \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eFlora \u0026amp; Ulysses\u003c\/i\u003e. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a week.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOne\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I am going to write it all down, so that what happened to me will be known, so that if someone were to stand at their window at night and look up at the stars and think, \u003ci\u003eMy goodness, whatever happened to Louisiana Elefante?\u003c\/i\u003e Where did she go?\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ethey will have an answer. They will know.\u003cbr\u003e   This is what happened.\u003cbr\u003e   I will begin at the beginning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The beginning is that my great-grandfather was a magician, and long, long ago he set into motion a most terrible curse.\u003cbr\u003e   But right now you do not need to know the details of the terrible curse. You only need to know that it exists and that it is a curse that has been passed down from generation to generation.\u003cbr\u003e   It is, as I said, a terrible curse.\u003cbr\u003e   And now it has landed upon my head.\u003cbr\u003e   Keep that in mind.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e We left in the middle of the night.\u003cbr\u003e   Granny woke me up. She said, “The day of reckoning has arrived. The hour is close at hand. We must leave immediately.”\u003cbr\u003e   It was three a.m.\u003cbr\u003e   We went out to the car and the night was very dark, but the stars were shining brightly.\u003cbr\u003e   Oh, there were so many stars!\u003cbr\u003e   And I noticed that some of the stars had arranged themselves into a shape that looked very much like someone with a long nose telling a lie — the Pinocchio constellation!\u003cbr\u003e   I pointed out the starry Pinocchio to Granny, but she was not at all interested. “Hurry, hurry,” said Granny. “There is no time for stargazing. We have a date with destiny.”\u003cbr\u003e   So I got in the car and we drove away.\u003cbr\u003e   I did not think to look behind me.\u003cbr\u003e   How could I have known that I was leaving for good?\u003cbr\u003e   I thought that I was caught up in some middle-of-the-night idea of Granny’s and that when the sun came up, she would think better of the whole thing.\u003cbr\u003e   This has happened before.\u003cbr\u003e   Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I fell asleep and when I woke up, we were still driving. The sun was coming up, and I saw a sign that said \u003ci\u003eGeorgia: 20 miles.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   Georgia!\u003cbr\u003e   We were about to change states, and Granny was still driving as fast as she could, leaning close to the windshield because her eyesight is not very good and she is too vain to wear glasses, and also because she is very short (shorter, almost, than I am) and she has to lean close to reach the gas pedal.\u003cbr\u003e   In any case, the sun was bright. It was lighting up the splotches and stains on the windshield and making them look like glow-in-the-dark stars that someone had pasted there as a surprise for me.\u003cbr\u003e   I love stars.\u003cbr\u003e   Oh, how I wish that someone had pasted glow-in-the-dark stars on our windshield!\u003cbr\u003e   However, that was not the case.\u003cbr\u003e   I said, “Granny, when are we going to turn around and go back home?”\u003cbr\u003e   Granny said, “We are never going to turn around, my darling. The time for turning around has ended.”\u003cbr\u003e   “Why?” I said.\u003cbr\u003e   “Because the hour of reckoning has arrived,” said Granny in a very serious voice, “and the curse at last must be confronted.”\u003cbr\u003e   “But what about Archie?”\u003cbr\u003e   At this point in my account of what became of me, it is necessary for you to know that Archie is my cat and that Granny has taken him from me before.\u003cbr\u003e   Yes, taken! It is truly a tragic tale. But never mind about that.\u003cbr\u003e   “Provisions have been made,” said Granny.\u003cbr\u003e   “What sort of provisions?”\u003cbr\u003e   “The cat is in good hands,” said Granny.\u003cbr\u003e   Well, this was what Granny had said to me the last time she took Archie, and I did not like the sound of her words one bit.\u003cbr\u003e   Also, I did not believe her.\u003cbr\u003e   It is a dark day when you do not believe your granny.\u003cbr\u003e   It is a day for tears.\u003cbr\u003e   I started to cry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I cried until we crossed over the Florida-Georgia state line.\u003cbr\u003e   But then something about the state line woke me up. State lines can do that. Maybe you understand what I am talking about and maybe you don’t. All I can say is that I had a sudden feeling of irrevocableness and I thought, \u003ci\u003eI have to get out of this car. I have to go back.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   So I said, “Granny, stop the car.”\u003cbr\u003e   And Granny said, “I will do no such thing.”\u003cbr\u003e   Granny has never listened to other people’s instructions. She has never heeded anyone’s commands. She is the type of person who tells other people what to do, not vice versa.\u003cbr\u003e   But in the end, it didn’t matter that Granny refused to stop the car, because fate intervened.\u003cbr\u003e   And by that I mean to say that we ran out of gas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If you have not left your home in the middle of the night without even giving it a backward glance; if you have not left your cat and your friends and also a one-eyed dog named Buddy without getting to tell any of them good-bye; if you have not stood on the side of the road in Georgia, somewhere just past the irrevocable state line, and waited for someone to come along and give you a ride, well, then you cannot understand the desperation that was in my heart that day.\u003cbr\u003e   Which is exactly why I am writing all of this down.\u003cbr\u003e   So that you will understand the desperation — the utter devastation — in my heart.\u003cbr\u003e   And also, as I said at the beginning, I am writing it down for somewhat more practical matters.\u003cbr\u003e   And those more practical matters are so that you will know what happened to me — Louisiana Elefante.","brand":"Candlewick","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300949872869,"sku":"NP9780763694630","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780763694630.jpg?v=1767731848","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/louisianas-way-home-isbn-9780763694630","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}