Beverly, Right Here

Beverly Tapinski has run away from home more times than she can count, but she was a kid then. Now she insists that what she's doing isn't running away at all. It's leaving. She sets out to prove she can manage alone, and she lands a job and finds somewhere to live.

There is plenty she wants to leave behind. Her dog, Buddy, is buried beneath the orange trees back home. Her friend Raymie never got a goodbye. Her mother, Rhonda, has always put herself first. Beverly's rule is simple: she won't lean on anyone, and she won't let anyone lean on her.

The people around her don't cooperate. Little by little, Beverly is drawn into connections she never planned on, and through the way others treat her, she starts to glimpse a version of herself she hasn't allowed before.

This is the final novel in Kate DiCamillo's trilogy about the Three Rancheros, which began with Raymie Nightingale. It follows Beverly, the toughest and prickliest of the trio, and it is funny and tender in equal measure. It works as a standalone story, though readers who know Raymie's book will find extra meaning in it.