Raymie Nightingale

Louisiana is a young orphan whom Raymie first meets at baton-twirling class. Unlike Raymie, whose physical appearance is not mentioned, DiCamillo describes Louisiana’s in detail. Louisiana is angelic both in aspect and in nature. She is a delicate young girl with a beautiful smile, gentle voice, and “swampy” lungs. She wears beautiful, girly dresses and shiny “good luck” bunny barrettes in her hair. Her Granny makes all her dresses, and Louisiana unselfconsciously loves them. Louisiana’s unruly and multiplying bunny barrettes are often used as a metaphor for Louisiana’s personality: “Her bunny barrettes glowed in the light of the sun. Each barrette looked purposeful, alive, as if it were busy receiving messages from very far away” (92).

Louisiana, like the bunnies, sometimes appears to be receiving far-away messages. She firmly believes that Archie her cat is still alive despite overwhelming evidence that he is not. It turns out that Louisiana is correct.

Louisiana is not afraid to show her emotions but is quick to faint when overcome with situational fear. She lives with her tiny, eccentric Granny in a dilapidated house with barely any food. Despite her desperate situation, Louisiana maintains a joyful, optimistic outlook on life, often to the point of denying reality. She calls the kill shelter the Very Happy Animal Center and the depressing nursing home the Golden Glen Happy Retirement Home. Partly living in a fantasy world is the only way Louisiana can cope with the tragedies she has endured. She often talks about her famous trapeze artist parents, the Flying Elefantes, in a fantastical way. However, when pushed about her grip on reality by Beverly, Louisiana coldly and bluntly tallies the tragedies they have all endured, showing that she knows very well “how the world works” (171), and briefly gives the reader a glimpse of the deep sorrow buried beneath her vivid imagination. Louisiana’s attitude contrasts with Raymie’s anxious and Beverly’s jaded approach to problems. It is these differences that allow each of the three protagonists, Raymie, Louisiana, and Beverly to learn from each other and grow.

Beverly is a streetwise young girl, the daughter of a New York cop and a former beauty queen/baton-twirling champion. She is a scrappy, sarcastic, and seemingly fearless protagonist, taking baton-twirling lessons despite already being an expert twirler. Rather than entering the Little Miss contest to win, Beverly is committed to sabotaging the entire event. Her layered reasons for this unusual goal gradually unfold. Initially Beverly claims she wants to sabotage the contest because her mother insists on entering her into every contest even though she hates them. This is true, but Beverly shows up to practice one day with a black eye. She initially lies about how she got the black eye but later explains that her mother hits her. Not only is Beverly being abused by her mother, but she also reveals that her father abandoned her years ago and moved to New York. She has run away several times to try, unsuccessfully, to reach him. To cope with this terrible situation, Beverly has built a hard shell around herself. She is fiercely independent. She expects the worst and is determined to face it head-on and alone. Beverly often proclaims her lack of fear to Raymie: “I’m not afraid of anything” (31), and, “Fear is a big waste of time. I’m not afraid of anything” (79). When Louisiana stops Ida from hitting Beverly, Beverly says it’s fine: “No one’s going to hurt me. It’s impossible to hurt me” (85). Her desire to sabotage the contest is rooted in a desire to get back at her mother but maybe even more to get back at the unrelenting unfairness of life: “I am going to sabotage everything” (23).

Beverly has a hard time trusting people, and her default outlook on life is one of pessimism and dark realism. According to Beverly there is no doubt that Archie is dead, and it is no surprise that fathers leave in the middle of the night without saying goodbye: “That’s just how things go” (95). Her complicated emotional development is central to the book, demonstrating thread of overcoming despair and defeat with trust and unconditional friendship. Beverly rarely smiles at the beginning of the story, but as the three friends go on their missions, she begins to grin and laugh as she finally lets her guard down. Her sassy nature is maintained throughout, but the tough façade fades as she realizes she is safe among genuine friends. Beverly shows her gentle side when she comforts and sooths Alice Nebbley.

Beverly is the opposite of Louisiana, but she cares deeply for her and is impressed by Louisiana’s resilience. Beverly abandons her plans to sabotage the contest and suggests singing as a way for Louisiana to win, showing her commitment to her friend. Beverly still has major hurdles to overcome—her mother is presumably still abusive, and her father is still absent—but she has gained two strong and dependable friends whom she can count on for unconditional support.

Ida Nee is in her fifties, has “extremely bright yellow” hair (2), and wears knee-high white boots and spangled sparkly tops. She used to be a baton-twirling champion and proudly displays championship trophies, some of which are not hers, in her house. Despite being an instructor, she clearly does not like children and lacks patience and empathy. Ida has no interest in the three girls standing in front of her She doesn’t care why Louisiana faints and doesn’t go to help her; she ignores signs of abuse on Beverly’s face, proceeding to inflict further pain by hitting Beverly for daring to ignore her demand to spit out gum; and she seems to completely ignore Raymie. Ida provides no instruction during the lessons; instead, she storms off at the start of each session, annoyed and frustrated over some perceived irritation.

Ida Nee is introduced as an antagonist, with no positive side to her. As the story unfolds, the girls discover that Ida is not an intrinsically evil person but rather a self-centered, lonely woman dealing with her own problems. Ida is unable to accept that her days as a baton-twirling star are over and so has turned to alcohol to cope with her now unfulfilling life. Before this revelation, Ida Nee says at the beginning of one of the lessons, “Stand up straight! That is the first rule of baton twirling, to stand as if you value yourself and your place in the world” (82). Ida clearly does not value herself anymore, clinging to the past and unable to find a place for her middle-aged self in the world.

Mrs. Borkowski Raymie’s elderly neighbor, is Raymie’s spiritual guide and mentor, albeit an eccentric, somewhat confused one. She likes to sit in the middle of the road in a lawn chair, soaking up the sun. Her shoes are always untied because she is too old to reach her feet, and she laughs like a horse, head back, mouth open and whinnying. She also smells like mothballs. These traits are mildly mocked by adults but loved by Raymie.

Raymie’s mother describes Mrs. Borkowski as “crazy as a loon” and “always so strange” (46, 136), but to Raymie Mrs. Borkowski is a deep source of information and someone who asks existential questions such as, “why does the world exist?” (162)—questions that worry Raymie, too. When Mrs. Borkowski does not have an answer, she says “Phhhtttt.” She also tells fantastically imaginative stories to Raymie, claiming to have seen a giant seabird snatching a baby from his mother’s arms. These stories fascinate Raymie, and Mrs. Borkowski enjoys having someone to tell them to. Importantly, Mrs. Borkowski introduced the concept of “soul” to Raymie: “Nobody else Raymie had ever met talked about their souls” (144).

When Mrs. Borkowski dies of a heart attack, the only person who seems to be truly heartbroken is Raymie. Raymie still hears Mrs. Borkowski’s voice after she dies. The last time Raymie hears Mrs. Borkowski, she says, “You. Now. This you can do” (239), supplying critical encouragement just before Raymie dives into Swip Pond to save Louisiana. 

Mrs. Sylvester is the secretary at Clarke Family Insurance, the insurance company that belongs to Raymie’s father. She is a source of comfort and hope throughout the book. Mrs. Sylvester is a consistently supportive role model in Raymie’s life and one of the first people Raymie turns to for advice and help.

She is very short, with a high-pitched voice described as sounding like “a little cartoon bird” (10), which makes what she says sound “ridiculous but also possible—both things at the same time” (10). Her comforting, supportive nature is mirrored in her office, where she keeps a large jar of candy corn on her desk, and her nurturing tendencies even extend to feeding the swans on Swip Pond every day. The image of Mrs. Sylvester wearing a scarf and standing in the middle of a group of swans, her arms holding a big bag of swan food, reminds Raymie of a fairy tale. Like a fairy tale character, Mrs. Sylvester is never angry and is always optimistic. She makes vague reassuring comments that eventually come to fruition. When Raymie asks Mrs. Sylvester her opinion about Jim Clarke running away with a younger woman, she offers her typically kind, but bland, “Well, dear, I have found that most things work out right in the end” (11).

Raymie has immense respect for Mr. Staphopoulos, her lifesaving course coach and mentor. He is described as having “fur on his toes and fur all down his back” (40), with an ever-present silver whistle around his neck.

Mr. Staphopoulos is portrayed as passionate about his job. With his drowning dummy Edgar, he taught Raymie the skills she ends up using perfectly to save Louisiana from drowning in Swip Pond. Mr. Staphopoulos also taught his students relaxation techniques that Raymie frequently uses on her missions. He had his students “flex their toes and isolate their objectives” before every practice (57). He believed that “flexing your toes cleared your mind and that once your mind was clear, it was easy to isolate your objective and figure out what to do next” (57). Throughout the book many of the characters, from the three girls to Ida Nee, are trying to do exactly that: isolate their problems and figure out what to do next. When Mr. Staphopoulos moves and says goodbye to Raymie, she experiences her first significant loss of an adult role model.

Jim Clarke is Raymie’s father who ran away with a dental assistant two days before the story starts. His desertion is the reason that Raymie is at baton-twirling lessons. The catch phrase for his insurance agency, Clarke Family Insurance, is sadly ironic: “How may we protect you?” (49). We learn snippets about his personality from Raymie’s memories: He smokes cigarettes and used to put Raymie up on his shoulders when her she was younger. He also used to kiss Raymie’s forehead good night and squeeze her shoulders, but that is as far as Jim Clarke’s personality is fleshed out. His absence is reflected in DiCamillo’s minimal characterization of him.

When Jim Clarke finally makes a phone call after seeing Raymie’s picture in the paper, he has nothing to say—no words of congratulations, or of remorse for leaving. He seems like a completely unremarkable man, at a loss in knowing how to connect with his daughter. In the beginning of the story, Jim Clarke was everything to Raymie, and getting him back was the answer to every problem, but as the narrative unfolds Raymie understands that her happiness and sense of completeness do not hinge on her father’s return, an event she comes to accept is unlikely to happen.

Raymie’s mother, Mrs. Clarke, is devastated by her husband’s abandonment of her and Raymie, calling it a “tragedy.” She is upset not only that he left but also because he has disgraced himself by running off with another woman. DiCamillo does not give any physical description of Mrs. Clarke but conjures up an image of a woman consumed by sorrow. When Mrs. Sylvester asks Raymie how her mother is doing, Raymie says, “She’s sitting on the couch in the sunroom right now. She does that a lot. Mostly, that’s what she does. She doesn’t really do anything else. She just sits there.” (51).

Mrs. Clarke is emotionally unavailable for Raymie but does pick up Raymie from lessons and cooks dinners. Mrs. Clarke is not someone whom Raymie turns to for advice or help. She doesn’t understand Raymie’s interest in baton twirling or Raymie’s high opinion of Mrs. Borkowski. There is a sense that Raymie and her mother have never been particularly close, even before Jim left.

Rhonda Tapinski, Beverly’s mother, wears bright eyeshadow, large fake eyelashes, and a generous coating of rouge on her cheeks. Her maiden name is Joy, and she was a beauty queen and baton-twirling champion. We are introduced to Rhonda when she arrives in a “brilliant, glittering” blue car to pick Beverly up from Ida Nee’s house. Immediately her angry, impatient personality is exposed as she grabs at Beverly’s baton and shouts at both Raymie and Beverly. Ida Nee and Rhonda clearly know each other but are not friends. Midway through the story, Beverly finds trophies belonging to Rhonda displayed in Ida’s house, hinting at a past rivalry between the two baton twirlers. Rhonda works at Belknap Tower gift shop selling “canned sunshine and rubber alligators” to tourists.

Rhonda’s husband, a cop, left her and Beverly and moved to New York. Rhonda takes out her anger and frustration on Beverly, giving her a black eye for some minor shoplifting. The cause of Beverly’s chipped tooth is never disclosed, but an implication is that it is a result of abuse at the hands of Rhonda.

Louisiana’s grandmother, known as Granny, is a strong, determined, and very tiny old lady. When Raymie sees her for the first time, all she sees are Granny’s hands on the steering wheel of her rundown station wagon. Granny looks like an older version of Louisiana, complete with bunny barrettes in her gray hair. She drives too fast and wildly, ignoring stop signs and the desperate sounds coming from her old station wagon. Granny appears to be living in a fantasy world in which she believes she is being chased by a fictitious Marsha Jean who is determined to take Louisiana and put her in an orphanage. We later learn that this is a clever ruse that Granny has concocted to keep Louisiana on her. Granny knows she will not be around forever to take care of Louisiana and is preparing her for the future. Even though Granny is penniless, lives in a dilapidated house with no furniture and no food, and has been through terrible losses herself, she maintains a cheerful outlook and is devoted to Louisiana: “You are the best granddaughter an old woman could hope for” (122). The devotion goes both ways: Granny makes all of Louisiana’s beautiful sparkly dresses, and Louisiana wears them proudly. When Granny is driving like a maniac with Raymie and Beverly in the back, Louisiana reassures them, “Granny is the best there is” (118). One of Louisiana’s rare realistic references to her dead parent is when she is talking about her Granny: “Granny always kisses me good night […] And then she gives me kisses from the absent ones. That’s my mother and my father and my grandfather. I get four kisses” (202).

Granny and Louisiana subsist on stolen canned food, but Granny assuages any guilt Louisiana might feel by telling her they are not criminals, they are “survivors,” “fighters” (88). Granny is a joyful, caring presence, and as dire as Louisiana’s situation is, she is fortunate to have Granny looking after her.

Ruthie is the nurse at the front desk of the hospital, a minor character but one who shows compassion and understanding. She is a motherly figure who wears a nametag on her blue sweater. She gives her sweater to Raymie to warm her up, and it smells like roses and “something deeper and sweeter even than roses” (250). When Raymie tells Ruthie about her father, Ruthie calls him a skunk—something she repeats to Mrs. Clarke over the phone after Mrs. Clarke explains their situation: “Some people just skunks. There ain’t no other way to say it” (250). Ruthie’s matter-of-fact manner puts events into perspective. When Louisiana says it’s a miracle that her cat Archie found her, Ruthie brings the miracle back down to earth: “Ain’t no miracle […] It’s just a cat, that’s how they do” (256).