Kate DiCamillo, award winning author of The Tale of Despereaux, Because of Winn-Dixie and Flora and Ulysses is a new-to-me author so I wasn't sure what to expect with Louisiana's Way Home. What I got was an entertaining and touching Middle School story that focuses on a memorable young character.

Louisiana Elephante is a precocious, quirky and loquacious tween girl who will wheedle her way into readers' minds and hearts for her spunkiness, unique view of the world and her forthrightness. Through Louisiana, this book addresses a few big issues (including love, loss, friendship and forgiveness) and has its share of emotional scenes.

There are some implausible plot points to contend with and DiCamillo leaves readers with a few unanswered questions. Normally, this would bother me but then I remembered that the reader is only privy to Louisiana's POV and all she knows is that life is uncertain, scary and lonely. She doesn't have all of the answers, so neither do we.

This book has a lot going on - how many books will feature a stuffed alligator, a stack of bologna sandwiches, a caramel-eating pianist and a friendly crow named Clarence? (I'm assuming not many). But put these things together with DiCamillo's wonderful prose and you'll get a heartfelt story of hope featuring a resilient girl who is struggling to find out who she is, what she wants and where she wants to be in the world.

Favourite Quote: Perhaps what matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up.


This review has been posted today (Dec 17, 2018) on my blog and various social media sights. Please see the links included.

Louisiana's Way Home is a charming, delightfully hope filled story for the masses. Full of humor and heartbreak, courage, the kindness of strangers and cake. This is a story that should be shared and if you are reading it aloud, use your very best Southern accent. Trust me on this. This is the one of best books I've read all year! Thank you Kate DiCamillo!

What can I say about LOUISIANA'S WAY HOME that probably hasn't already been said. I really enjoyed this book. A lot. I also really loved RAYMIE NIGHTINGALE and was excited to learn that DiCamillo had a follow-up book about Louisiana. I was on pins and needles the entire time i was reading LOUISIANA'S WAY HOME. When things weren't going right, I was worried for her. When things were good or getting better, I worried for her. How does DiCamillo do it! My favorite line and then one that sums up the book nicely, "Perhaps what matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up". Perfectly said.

This is a truly wonderful book. An instant classic. Louisiana is yanked from the only home she's known in the middle of the night by her grandmother, who is fleeing a curse. My heart ached for Louisiana as everything she thought she knew about herself falls away, but then love and family come in unexpected places. So many quotable quotes and truths.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this e-review edition of the book.

The story opens with the narrator, Louisiana, who’s abruptly awakened by her granny at 3am. At first she doesn’t think much of it.

“I thought 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.

This has happened before.

Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas.”

Once she realizes that they are about to enter Georgia, she asks Granny when they’ll be turning around to go back home. Granny simply tells her that they won’t be going home and that the time for turning around has ended.

“Because the hour of reckoning has arrived,” said Granny in a very serious voice, “and the curse at last must be confronted.”

Louisiana is aware that there’s a curse on her head–a family curse that’s been passed down from generation to generation, even though she doesn’t completely understand it. Even with this quite adventurous road trip, Louisiana is angry. She wants to go back home to her friends in Florida and find out where her cat Archie is. In the days that follow, Louisiana will learn many things about herself that she never knew. Her future becomes uncertain as she begins to question her existence. She’ll have to figure out how to find herself again and face some important decisions with difficulty.

This book was really interesting in the beginning and we were enjoying it, but parts of it seemed a little humdrum in between when there wasn’t much going on. The premise is good and the writing great, but it was roughly half way through that it really grabbed our attention. We had no idea what was going to happen and wondered what the end would be like. It was very surprising.

I’ll say that between the three of us reading the book, we all had different feelings: My daughter didn’t love it, my son absolutely loved it, and I simply liked it. I think for my younger daughter it was because she wasn’t picking up on some of the more complex topics and themes and we had to discuss these because the recommended reading age for this book is ten and up. It was still my turn to read at the end of the book and I couldn’t even finish the last four paragraphs or so. My daughter had to read it while my son and I cried our eyes out. It was at that point that all the emotions came together. What a story.

With themes of friendship, family, love and forgiveness, this book made me think about my dad who was in a very similar situation as a teen. In his case, this was something that he never got over. I think there are many children out there that could use some support and will benefit from reading Louisiana’s story.

We haven’t read Raymie Nightingale yet and I noticed in the blurb that it’s this book where Louisiana is first introduced. I sort of wish we would’ve started with that one first because I believe it’s possible that Louisiana plays a large role in it, but we’ll be reading that one soon–right after The Tale of Despereaux.

4****

I really liked this book. I found myself highlighting at least 4 places: great advice and insights from both Louisiana, and the new people she meets. I felt bad for Granny, and wished she could have encountered a less aggressive health care professional. (I don't want to spoil this for anyone reading who doesn't know the story). I would highly recommend the book for ALL AUDIENCES.


Thank you netgalley and Candlewick Press for allowing me to read this advanced copy of Louisiana's Way Home.

I love Kate DiCamillo's books and this one does not disappoint. Louisiana is forced to leave her home in the middle of the night. She then goes on the road looking for a way to get home and finding other adventures on her way.

I loved Louisiana in "Raymie Nightingale" and I love her more in this book. The follow-up to "Raymie Nightingale." Louisiana and her grandmother have left town in the middle of the night. They end up in a small town in Georgia with Louisiana trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to be.

This book is so heartwarming and has you cheering for Louisiana the whole time. She gets put into some tough situations, but she's strong and brave and faces them head on! Great companion to Raymie Nightingale and just such a sweet story!

Surely this will win the Newbery award. It will make you laugh, break your heart and lift your spirits.

I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I love all of Kate DiCamillo’s books. She has a way of making you feel like a child again, when all your problems seemed so large and new, but then bringing you back into the loving embrace of those that love you best, whether you were born to them or chose them.

This book tells the story of Louisiana and her granny, and of finding out that the curses you always believed you carried may not be yours to bear after all.

Please read it and have all your young readers read everything Kate has ever written.

Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo is a new book and one that my kids and I loved. I read it aloud and we all enjoyed this beautifully written story about a little girl discovering who she is and where she belongs. This story is sad and touching. Louisiana is forced to leave home with her Granny in the middle of the night. They begin driving and end up in a small town where she finds a new friend. Her journey to this new town is sad, but it ends happily.

This is a touching story about a precocious, lovable child named Louisiana who finds herself pulled away from her home and abandoned. How she deals with what is dealt her is a beautiful feel good story. #louisianaswayhome #netgalley

Louisiana's Way Home is a heartbreaking story of a Louisiana who is a young girl and her letter to her granny.

Louisiana and Granny are going on a very sudden trip. Along this trip granny tells her very little, and instead just expects her to keep going along with everything like she always had. You see Louisiana and Granny had a somewhat different life, Granny believed that they have a curse on them and uses this to keep Louisiana in line it seems. But as time has gone on Louisiana has gotten tired of this excuse and wants to know more, but never seems to get anywhere as Granny always changes the subject or tells her she doesn't need to know and to be quite.

On this roadtrip though Granny suddenly becomes in a lot of pain and they have to stop in a town for her to get help. From there they are essentially stuck while Granny recovers, this leaves Louisiana with a lot of free time, and she gets to explore and makes a friend. This friend becomes key to Louisiana's life and helps her through the things she learns from Granny as time goes on.

Overall I enjoyed this story and I would have loved this story as a middle grader. Louisiana is a inquisitive child and wants to know things, while also being resourceful. Granny is a charater that you can tell is just trying to do what she thinks is best for Louisiana, she just doesn't always show this in the best way. The people that Louisiana meets along the way are a wide variety of people and remind me of a lot of people that are actually in small towns. This is a great read for your middle grade reader who is unsure about there place in the world and needs to feel a little less alone in the world.

This book was really sweet and wonderful! It hit on some hard topics, but did so in a beautiful way. The characters are all very well fleshed out and well rounded. They will begin to feel like old friends. It was complex but easy to read. It will make your heart break for this sweet little girl, and then put it right back together again. This was just the book that I needed it to be.

This was a continued story from Kate DiCamillo’s novel Raymie Nightingale, where Louisiana was first introduced but is a side character. Between the two novels, I loved this one even more. Lousiana’s story is both heartbreaking and full of hope. Just when she thinks her unexpected journey couldn’t get any worse, it does in a way that even moved me to tears. It’s not all sadness though, Louisiana meets an unlikely new animal friend as well as its owner, a boy around Louisiana’s age that can break into any vending machine, can climb up a hotel wall without fear, and is the kind of person that will give you two instead of one bologna sandwich. Louisiana instantly becomes friends with him and his family and learns so much about this group of heartwarming people and the town she stumbled upon in such a short time. Not all of Louisiana’s encounters are friendly, but thanks to her life lessons from Granny, she never lets them get the better of her. Even when her world is turned completely upside down, she is never alone and begins to learn a whole new meaning of family and love.

Overall, this book touches on a lot of hard topics but is written beautifully and with a lot of emotion. There was never a doubt about any of Louisiana’s feelings or how the reader was supposed to feel throughout the story. This book was definitely a triumph on DiCamillo’s part.

I loved this book. Do yourself a favor, take an hour or so and read this. You will be delighted. I was.

Beautiful middle grade novel that focuses on Louisiana Elefante, the stand out character in Raymie Nightingale, as she finds herself far away from home navigating more hardship and shocking revelations.

*thank you to Netgalley and Candlewick Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4 stars.

Ohh why am I not surprised. Kate DiCamillo's books are always so well written and a pure pleasure to read. So once I started this, right through to the end, I loved it. Highly recommended.

Another amazing story from Kate DiCamillo. A great sequel of sorts to Mockingbird. A lovely story about growing up and finding your own home.