Author
Kate DiCamillo
8 books here
The Tale of Despereaux
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 740L · 2015
A once-in-a-childhood book—lyrical, genuinely moving, and the rare middle-grade novel that trusts kids with real sorrow and real beauty without flinching.
Bink & Gollie
Early reader · ages 5–8 · 480L · 2010
DiCamillo's gift for character shines through silly, affectionate stories about friendship—the illustrations are expressive enough to carry vocabulary, and kids reread these obsessively.
Because of Winn-Dixie
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 680L · 2009
A genuine emotional education disguised as a dog story; kids discover that loneliness is universal and that showing up for someone is how you make a friend.
Raymie Nightingale
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 720L · 2016
DiCamillo at her best — a small-stakes summer story that cracks open the emotional truth of what it means to need someone and be needed in return.
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 820L · 2015
DiCamillo's most literary middle-grade novel—a tender, funny story about the courage it takes to love something weird and to admit you've hurt the people closest to you.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 730L · 2009
A devastatingly beautiful meditation on what it means to be loved and to love—DiCamillo's most ambitious work for this age, and one kids return to across years.
The Tiger Rising
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 750L · 2004
DiCamillo's masterpiece for this age — quiet, emotionally precise, and utterly unsentimental about grief and isolation; the tiger is metaphor, but the boy's loneliness is heartbreakingly real.
Mercy Watson to the Rescue
Early reader · ages 6–8 · 450L · 2004
The platonic early-reader chapter book—short chapters, recurring lovable characters, and the illustrations carry the kid through the harder words.