Louisiana Elefante is heartbroken when she and her Granny leave Florida in the middle of the night: She didn’t get to say goodbye to her friends Raymie and Beverly, and her beloved cat, Archie, was left behind. After Granny’s dental emergency lands them in Richford, Georgia, Granny abandons Louisiana there. Granny had explained the reason for the trip was to undo a family curse, one she didn’t want Louisiana to bear. But the letter Granny leaves behind reveals that the story she’d always told Louisiana about her parents was a lie. That it was a lie spun from love makes it no less difficult for Louisiana to understand. Now stranded in Richmond, with a motel owner and church organist who look at her with nothing but suspicion, and a boy, his parents, and a minister who treat her with nothing but deep kindness, Louisiana must take charge of her own story; relief comes in knowing she doesn’t have to do it on her own. Louisiana is a girl of courage, fortitude, and deep feeling. This novel featuring a character introduced in Raymie Nightingale is completely improbable, if not impossible, yet brimming with honest emotion. (Ages 8–11)

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.