Kate DiCamillo

‘Reading aloud binds us together in unanticipated ways. It brings us home,’ Kate DiCamillo has written, recalling memories of her mother reading stories to her as a child growing up in Florida.

Sally Rippin and Kate DiCamillo

DiCamillo has a deep understanding of reading as a means of connecting us – as the former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, she has advocated for the importance of stories as a means by which children can see the world clearly. Her children’s stories and middle grade novels, from Flora and Ulysses to Because of Winn-Dixie, are treasured by readers of all ages for their careful, tender – and often magical – depictions of how it feels to grow up.

DiCamillo’s latest novel, Raymie Nightingale, follows in that tradition, and represents a form of homecoming for its author. Set in Florida in the golden patina of the ’70s, and centring on a ten-year-old protagonist grappling with abandonment by her father, the novel is, according to DiCamillo, ‘the absolutely true story of my heart’.

Listen to DiCamillo in conversation with Sally Rippin as they discuss the importance of reading and writing for everyone – and take lots of questions from readers young and old.