Beverley, Right Here deals with the real issues of caring for children both physically and emotionally.
Kate DiCamillo is an American author of children’s fiction. She is best known for Flora and Ulysses and The Tale of Despereaux, which was made into a film. DiCamillo has won many awards including two Newberry Medals. Her stories usually feature animals, but has steered away from the norm with her series of three novels about The Three Rancheros. Beverley, Right Here is the third book in this series, the first two being Raymie Nightingale and Louisiana’s Way Home.
Beveley Tapinski is a 14-year-old girl who has been living with Rhonda, her mother, in a town in the USA. Beverley is lost and alone. We first meet her as she is running away from home after burying her beloved dog, Buddy, in the back garden under the orange trees. She has run away before, but this time is different. She is leaving once and for all. At the age of 14, she needs to find her own way in the world, away from a home where her father has left and her mother Rhonda is a drunk who doesn’t care about anyone except herself. Buddy was her one shining light in a dark world. And now he is gone leaving Beverley alone and lonely.
Beverley sets off in a car with her cousin. She is left on the side of the road and eventually finds herself in a small community on a main highway near the sea. She needs to find somewhere to live and a way to support herself. I love the fact that she hasn’t thought this through and needs to make decisions on the fly as she overcomes the obvious obstacles we encounter when we have to look after ourselves.
Beverley wants to live her own life, without having to worry about people who may not care. She wants to be where no-one depends on her and she doesn’t depend on anyone else. Despite starting afresh with people who don’t know her, she begins to connect with the people around her. She finds work at Mr C’s fish restaurant. She moves into a trailer (caravan) with Iola, an old lady living in a trailer park. She drives Iola around in her Pontiac car, despite being too young to drive legally. She meets Mr Denby, the owner of the fish restaurant who is having problems of his own, Freddie who is the waitress, and Elmer, the kind-hearted boy with terrible acne who works at Zoom City, the local convenience store. All well-developed characters.
Beverley is a young girl at a crossroad. She could lose her way and travel down a path that leads to despair and trouble with the authorities. Luckily she meets a group of people who show her that there is a different path. Gradually, Beverley begins to change as she becomes accepted by those around her, and learns to accept them. She realises that everyone has problems and discovers that we all have the ability to react positively or negatively to our circumstances.
I love the people she meets, people who are able to accept a newcomer with no strings attached, just like her dear dog Buddy. It is a story where Beverley begins to see herself through the eyes of others and learns to accept friendships. It is full of emotions, especially love, which doesn’t necessarily need to be reciprocated. We are on this journey with Beverley. We are gradually made privy to just some of the things which have shaped Beverley’s young life and made her into the girl we see at the beginning of the book.
I was drawn to the people around her who loved unconditionally, but could see where she needed to be and still didn’t want to hold her back, only wanting the best for her. Beverley, Right Here also deals with the real issues of caring for children both physically and emotionally. It is a lovely, easy to read book for middle aged readers and if you have read the first two books in the series, you really need to complete the story.
Reviewed by Sue Mauger
Distributed by: Walker Books Australia
Released: September 2019
RRP: $19.99
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