Best Selling Books by Kate DiCamillo

A National Book Award finalist by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger—a real-life, very large tiger—pacing back and forth in a cage. What’s more, on the same extraordinary day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to trust each other, and ultimately, to be friends, Rob and Sistine prove that some things—like memories, and heartache, and tigers—can’t be locked up forever. Featuring a new cover illustration by Stephen Walton.

Revisit Kate DiCamillo’s beloved first novel with a beautiful twentieth-anniversary edition featuring an introduction by Ann Patchett. “This book is (I hope) a hymn of praise to dogs, friendship, and the South,” Kate DiCamillo said of her best-selling debut novel, which has been awarded a Newbery Honor, translated into nearly thirty languages, and turned into a major motion picture. The story of a preacher’s daughter named Opal whose life is transformed by a scruffy dog named Winn-Dixie continues to touch the hearts of readers of all ages. Celebrate twenty years of Because of Winn-Dixie with a signature anniversary edition featuring a redesigned cover, an introduction by PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author Ann Patchett, and an afterword by Kate DiCamillo.

From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes a story of discovering who you are — and deciding who you want to be. When 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.) Called “one of DiCamillo’s most singular and arresting creations” by The New York Times Book Review, the heartbreakingly irresistible Louisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in Raymie Nightingale — and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story.

The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.

A 2016 National Book Award Finalist! Two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo returns to her roots with a moving, masterful story of an unforgettable summer friendship. Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie''s picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.

Edward Tulane, a cold-hearted and proud toy rabbit, loves only himself until he is separated from the little girl who adores him and travels across the country, acquiring new owners and listening to their hopes, dreams, and histories. Jr Lib Guild. Teacher''s Guide available. Reprint.

"Youngsters are sure to delight in the exploits of this butter-loving pig, savoring the ‘wonky in the extreme’ text and energetic, innocent art." —School Library Journal Some may find it wonky to take a pig to the drive-in. But not the Watsons, who think the movie’s title, When Pigs Fly, is inspirational. And not their beloved Mercy, who is inspired by the scent of real butter from the theater’s Bottomless Buckets of popcorn. As they pull up in their convertible, Mercy lifts up her snout and becomes a pig on a mission, leading a delirious chase that’s trailed by hapless rescuers reunited from Mercy’s earlier adventures.

Rescuing a squirrel after an accident involving a vacuum cleaner, comic-reading cynic Flora Belle Buckman is astonished when the squirrel, Ulysses, demonstrates astonishing powers of strength and flight after being revived. By the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Tale of Despereaux. Simultaneous.

A New York Times bestseller! The beloved 2014 Newbery Medal winner by former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Kate DiCamillo is now available in a movie tie-in edition. Holy unanticipated occurrences! From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black and white by K. G. Campbell.

A Literature Kit. Your students will enjoy this wonderful story of loss and longing, of loneliness, friendships and the finding of contentment in a place for oneself. This is a story in which a ten-year-old girl must face the abandonment of her mother, and find the answer to the question Will she ever come back? The answer, surprisingly, is No!, but India Opal Buloni, over the course of the novel, learns to deal with this answer through her experiences and support of a growing circle of friends, all of whom have also suffered some kind of loss themselves. And finally, it is the story of the love between a girl and her dog, a pet that has an uncanny ability to bring kindred spirits together.

As featured on The Today Show’s Read with Jenna Jr. Book Club 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.

"DiCamillo packs intense feelings into and between the lines of her simply phrased tale, set off perfectly by Mok’s spare, neatly drawn barnyard settings. . . Sensitive and quietly enthralling." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Every friendship faces challenges. Orris and Timble are back in a poignant and evocatively illustrated tale of trust from a two-time Newbery Medalist. Orris the rat and Timble the owl are unlikely friends. Each night, Timble visits Orris in the barn and listens to his stories. But Timble is growing up, and one evening when the owl doesn’t appear as usual Orris wonders if Timble has forgotten him. Is their friendship over? Or could it be that Timble has a tale of his own to share? Illustrated with wistful tenderness, the second title in a projected trilogy to feature this charmingly offbeat pair masterfully explores the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we tell each other, and the binding magic of friendship.

"Fresh, wry dialogue and witty cartooning are as dynamic a pairing as Bink and Gollie themselves." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) All righty, then! Celebrate the tall and short of a marvelous friendship with a new Bink and Gollie adventure. Slapstick and sweetness, drollery and delight abound in this follow-up to the Geisel Award–winning, New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Bink and Gollie, written by the beloved and best-selling Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee and brought to hilarious life by Tony Fucile.

From beloved storyteller Kate DiCamillo comes the first book in a warm and funny early-reader trilogy about a misanthropic rat and a naive owl—and the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Orris the rat lives alone in an old barn surrounded by his treasures, until the day his solitude is disrupted by a sudden flutter of wings and a loud screech. A small owl has gotten caught in a trap in the barn. Can Orris “make the good and noble choice” (as the king on his prized sardine can might recommend) and rescue the owl, despite the fact that owls and rats are natural enemies? And if he does, will he be ready for the consequences? With humor and tenderness, two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo brings us this first of three tales celebrating unlikely friendship and the power of sharing stories and doing the right thing—a soon-to-be classic brought to expressive life by the full-color illustrations of Carmen Mok.