Book Series Review: Three Rancheros - by Kate DiCamillo

Hello, friends!

On October 16th, 2014 I read my first Kate DiCamillo book: The Tale of Despereaux. I devoured the whole thing in one day and I LOVED it. That started me on the journey of Kate DiCamillo being one of my favorite authors. By complete coincidence, I read another book of hers in totality on October 16th, 2015. When I realized that I year had passed since my first, I decided to make this accident turn into tradition and therefore read a book by her every October 16th. I consider it my "reading birthday" in a way.

Today I'll be reviewing three of her books I've read over the years that are slightly connected.

This "series"---called Three Rancheros---takes the three girls introduced in the first book---Raymie, Louisiana, and Beverly---and gives each a turn at being the main character. They are sequential in that each goes off of the background of the previous book(s), but they could also be read as stand-alones. I'll give a light overview of the premise and some thoughts, both of which will be spoiler free.

Raymie Nightingale - by Kate DiCamillo

"Are you going to be a problem causer or a problem solver?"

Premise: Raymie Clarke's father just left her, but she desperately wants him to still be part of her life. The best way she can think of to accomplish this is to make him see her picture in the paper by winning the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition and he'd be proud of her and come back. Some other girls in the competition are Louisiana and Beverly, but Raymie learns to not see them as rivals but friends, and needs their help in forming her new life.

Genres: Coming of age, Middle grade fiction

Awards: National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature, Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Middle Grade & Children's, The Magnolia Award Nominee for 6-8.

There is an updated cover for this book that is in the same style as the next two, but I just adore this original cover.

General thoughts:

Kate DiCamillo perfectly captures the feeling of a hot summer filled with a young girl's desperation to bring back what she has lost. I admire Raymie's determination to fix things. I love stories with three friends as I have two sisters and together we make up our own "three rancheros." My first instinct was to say that I was most like Louisiana due to physical appearance, but as I look back on this book I think I'm most like Raymie. Just minus the determination. The other characters form so solidly in ones imagination as Ms. DiCamillo's prose just carries you along: from youngsters to old folks and everyone in between.

"She sounded like a little cartoon bird when she talked, and this made everything that she said seem ridiculous but also possible--both things at the same time."

Ms. DiCamillo's books always have powerful character revelations and this is no exception, pulling in the historical figure of Florence Nightingale, not as a character but as a hero to admire. This book looks at the emotions when someone we think of as a hero does things we would not believe them to, and how to be heroes ourselves. It's a book about what it means to rescue things.

There are references to other great children's literature such as The Borrowers, Paddington, and Little House on the Prairie, and I would say it should go in the canon of heartfelt children's books itself.

"Well, dear, I have found that most things work out right in the end."

Louisiana's Way Home - by Kate DiCamillo

"In some ways, this is a story of woe and confusion, but it is also a story of joy and kindness and free peanuts."

Premise: One day Louisiana's grandmother tells her to get in the car and they start driving. This feels different from her grandmother's other whims and as they don't have any money they try to keep that secret as they arrange for a hotel room in a new town. But that's not the only secret her grandmother is keeping and between her health and her grandmother's, someone is bound to notice that something is wrong.

"Because that is what it means to be alive on this infinitesimally spinning planet. It means you have cares.

Doesn't it?"

Genres: Coming of age, Middle grade fiction

Awards: Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Grades 3-6, Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Nominee, Minnesota Book Award Nominee for Middle Grade Literature, Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Middle Grade & Children's, Whippoorwill Award.

General thoughts:

"Those who love us can't always find us, can they? Or else I would not be writing these words."

One of my notes from reading this book several years ago was "why is it so amazing and sob inducing???"

If my younger sister read this book she'd probably say that it wasn't realistic. But that's part of the point, it's seeing the world for what it could be and finding unexpected kindness in strangers. The sort of people "who give you two when you ask for one."

Through that, I adore the cast of characters in this one. Burke Allen III will forever hold a place in my heart, and his grandpop is pretty great, too. Louisiana is such a dear and her strength comes from within.

If I had to name one type of book to read for the rest of my life, it would be "fish out of water" stories, where the main character comes to a new town and the reader gets to discover all the residents at the same time the main character does. The character has been through a couple towns already and is reluctant to let these new people take up residence in their heart to only leave again. 

This book checks all of those boxes.

It's about forgiveness, kindness, and finding oneself. I couldn't ask for a better and more hopeful message.

"And perhaps what matters what all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up."

Beverly, Right Here - by Kate DiCamillo

"This is the end of the road unless you have a dream."

Premise: It's 1979 and Beverly is lonely. So she decides to run away from those feelings and her town and start anew. She lies about her age to get a job at a restaurant and as an old lady's chauffeur in exchange for a place to stay. Beverly is known for being quiet, so she usually blends into the background, but that's not the same as belonging. Maybe leaving will help her find a true home. 

"I mean to say that I am afraid I've mislocated my capabilities."

Genres: Coming of age, Middle grade fiction

General thoughts:

"The fan was on the floor, turning slowly from side to side, looking for something it had lost."

This is a book where plot-wise, not a lot happens. But emotion-wise, everything happens. You've got an old lady going to bingo and an odd kid in a grocery store and a restaurant that is trying to survive and all of those are connected through Beverly. All her life she's been told she doesn't have feelings, and now they're swarming inside of her from not being released.

Of all the books in this series it's the one that feels most firmly set in a year. And as I know someone who was Beverly's age in that year, I felt it gave me a look into her life.

It's a book about trust and letting people inside, both literally and figuratively. I love the art. And the turkey scenario. And the bird motif. It has relationships with young and old folks alike that made me grin non-stop. My heart was very full after reading this book. 

It seems to me that this is the least well known of the three books, which makes me sad because it is a masterful conclusion. It's set a few years after the other books and I love the way they all connect. 

"They were such beautiful blue words.

She couldn't help it. She loved them."

Ah, Kate DiCamillo writes books that I will never get tired of and never forget. Her stories always change me and as she says in Louisiana's Way Home, "There is a great deal of power in writing things down."

Thanks for reading! Have you read any of these or Kate DiCamillo's other books? What are other books that pull at your heart? Any "fish out of water" books, like these or Moon Over Manifest? 

Happy "Kate DiCamillo day!"

Chloe the MovieCritic

Movie Review: The Breakfast Club (1985)

"Don't you forget about me..."

We all have probably heard that song. Maybe some of us know the references from watching other films such as Pitch Perfect (2012), but I'd never actually watched the 1985 cult classic The Breakfast Club.

I wasn't a complete stranger to it, though. Even without knowing names, from the first few minutes into the film I recognized "the guy in the trench coat."

Now I know the names of all the characters. I still don't understand why it's called The Breakfast Club, but I have more thoughts to contribute. With that, enjoy my spoiler-free review of John Hughes's hit film:

The Breakfast Club (1985):

Premise: Five kids are stuck in detention for all of a Saturday. They're all from different school cliques and at first have nothing nice to say to each other. As the tensions of being stuck in the same room with each other escalate, it makes them each question who they really are.

Genres: Coming-of-age, drama.

Length: approx. 97 minutes.

"I'm in a math club." Look at him count!

Age Range: This is rated R, so not advised for under 17 without an adult. It is a movie about teens for teens, but that does come with a little baggage. There is a lot of language including intense swearing and name calling. Teen smoking. Bullying both verbally and references to physical bullying with a discussion of hazing. There are quite a few inappropriate comments about people and their bodies as well an invasion of personal space. Dialogue with suggestive sexual undertones as well as several discussions of whether these teens have or have not done these things. Additionally there are darker subjects such as allusions to domestic violence and attempted suicide.

Crew: Directed and Written by: John Hughes. Produced by: John Hughes and Ned Tanen. Cinematography by: Thomas Del Ruth. Music by: Keith Forsey.

Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Paul Gleason, and John Kapelos.

While all of the five actors playing the roles of the high schoolers were known as part of the "Brat Pack"---the name for a group of young actors who tended to appear in the same films together, playing off of the idea of the 1960s Rat Pack---this movie also possibly sets the stage for casting non-teens to play teenagers. Of the five students, only Molly Ringwald was under 20.

General thoughts:

I am not known as a lover of 80s movies. In fact, I usually stay as far away from that decade as I can (though as I've seen a wider range of films I now consider the 70s to be the worst decades of movies made). With this knowledge of my least favorite decades, years ago my younger sister told me that I wouldn't like The Breakfast Club. I figured she was probably correct, but as it is on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list, I thought I should check it out. It was the 100th on that list for me to see, so approx. 1/10 of the way there I feel like I'm finally making progress!

Back to this film from 1985, was my sister correct in her prediction? 

"When you grow up your heart dies." Way to shoot an arrow to my heart.

I really like the premise of bringing people together from different groups and having them interact with people they would never choose to. I think that is a very human story and makes us rethink the walls we put up in our own life. At the same time, the execution of that idea is not my favorite here. Maybe that makes it time to admit that I was baffled through most of this film for the way the characters treat each other due to how I never went to a public school. Are high schoolers really this cruel to each other? Does an eight-hour session of detention on a Saturday really exist?

I see this as is a precursor to other stories such as The View From Saturday - by E.L. Konigsburg and Lemonade Mouth (2011), where kids from different school cliques join forces through detention or competition and realize that they are more than the barriers dividing them. The difference with The Breakfast Club (1985) is that all of the film takes place in one day. Brian asks the others what is going to happen to them on Monday, and while dialogue and actions tell some possibilities, we as the audience don't know. It's let up to our imagination. There was the possibility of a sequel for a long time, but that never got fully developed.

I'm left with a few questions. Why was Claire in detention? My web searches for the answer to this question is that it is because she skipped school, but I don't remember that being mentioned anywhere. Then again, while I did watch this movie within the last week, I watched it over a few days in 20 or 40 minute pieces, so I could've lost some of the continuity.

As far as other continuity, I like the way that it tried to show us eight hours in under 100 minutes, but there were a few times it felt a little off to me. There was a bit jump from learning about Bender's life to roaming the halls that did not flow and I would've like to see how Bender convinced the others to do that.

While I was not around in 1985, this film dates itself in a few ways. One being the ending, which is portrayed as being a good one, but I did not think it was the right one. While the characters developed and relationships grew, I don't think it had earned where it went. I did not understand the dynamics between a few of the characters, especially how one was nothing but cruel to another and never apologized yet we the audience are supposed to be rooting for the two of them to come to an understanding? I'm all for connection between these characters, but I think kindness is key to be displayed sometime throughout the eight hours and one day is not enough to grow close the in way the film forced them to be. 

Are they in school or jail? Is there a difference?

There was another reason that I did not love the ending. Ideally, part of characters finding the similarities between each other is where they come to realize that the differences are important, too. Here, it feels like the differences between "us weirdos" was kind of erased? For no real reason? I'm more than a little grumpy about this.

Another way that it is dated to the 80s is in terms of content, and in particular I felt it was typical that while three of the characters really pressed about details of their personal and intimate lives, the other two never were under this same pressure. That unfortunately played into stereotypes instead of challenging them. Not that needed to know, I just think it unfair of how these characters were treated as opposed to Andrew and Bender. 

"Didn't we already talk about this?" I was thinking the same thing.

With all of this, I didn't dislike it either. One of the dancing scenes made me ridiculously happy. The montage of what it was like being bored was peak comedy. While I didn't love some of the cinematographic choices for invading a person's personal space, for the most part the camera angles didn't strike me as being anything special. That is until a scene where Andrew is talking about his relationship with his dad. The camera moves around him, behind the heads of the other teens, ducking behind walls, but the focus is always on Andrew and doesn't change until he's done. It was a very effective way to capture his feelings with the breaks in the viewer seeing him almost working along with his breathing.

My absolute favorite part of the movie was a scene between Andrew and Allison where he asks her what's going on. There is such a softness and gentleness to this gesture and I loved the demonstration that persisting in asking a simple question means that someone is listening to you. 

I also am not ashamed to admit that I cried while watching this film. Not in the part that people usually do I suspect, but when my favorite character cried. How dare you hurt his poor feelings!

I'm glad I watched this movie. It had depth. It feels like an ode to the struggles some high schoolers face, and I appreciate that. So to reassure what the band Simple Minds is singing about, no, I won't be forgetting about it any time soon. With that, I think the message of this movie was accomplished.

"Don't you forget about me // Don't, don't, don't, don't // Don't you forget about me"

This is my entry in the blogathon hosted by Hamlette (of Hamlette's Soliloquy) and Quiggy (of Midnite Drive-In), which is the Back to 1985 Blogathon! Make sure to check out HERE and HERE for a roster of all of the entries celebrating the films of 1985.

Thanks to both Hamlette and Quiggy for hosting!

How accurate is this movie to your high school experience? What are other stories of people from different backgrounds getting together that you enjoy? Do you have a favorite character from this movie? Does anyone know why it's called The Breakfast Club? I understand the club part and when the title is said, but it seemed non sequitur to me. However, most of my own thoughts probably seem non sequitur to others, so maybe this movie and I are well matched!

Thanks for reading, friends! 

Chloe the MovieCritic