In addition to performing a talent, the pageant requires each contestant to perform a good deed. The girls form a strong friendship, and as the bond grows, Louisiana names their little group “the Three Rancheros.” She storms out of each lesson in frustration, leaving the unlikely threesome alone. Ida Nee is dealing with issues of her own and has no patience with the three girls. Raymie, like Louisiana and Beverly, is left searching for guidance and support. The other adult role model in Raymie’s life, her lifesaving coach, left town a few months earlier. Borkowski, who Raymie could talk to about everything, dies of a heart attack. Her devastated mother struggles to cope with her father’s absence, leaving Raymie without support at home. Raymie, who is an anxious and sensitive girl, suffers more loss after her father leaves. Her main goal is to get her grandmother and herself out of poverty by winning the pageant prize money. Her fantastical imagination helps her to cope with her past tragedies. According to Louisiana, her parents were famous trapeze artists who died when their ship sank. Despite her tragic losses, Louisiana is optimistic, imaginative, and hopeful. Louisiana, an orphan, lives in poverty with her eccentric but loving grandmother. She is a fearless, streetwise young girl, but over time the others see the loyal friend beneath her tough protective shell. Beverly has run away twice before, trying to get to New York. With no real interest in winning, Beverly is determined to sabotage the pageant, both to get herself out of it and to get back at her mother.

Beverly’s father abandoned her and moved to New York when she was young. Beverly is already an expert twirler and is only taking lessons at the insistence of her abusive mother. In Ida Nee’s backyard, Raymie meets Beverly Tapinski and Louisiana Elefante, two young girls who are also taking lessons and entering the same pageant. Sylvester, Raymie decides to learn baton twirling and enrolls in twirling lessons with former baton champion Ida Nee. With the encouragement of her father’s kind secretary, Mrs. To win the pageant, Raymie needs to perform a talent for the judges. She believes that if she wins the contest her father will see her face in the paper, realize his terrible mistake, and return home.

Raymie Clark is determined to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire pageant as a way to lure back her father, who has just run off with a dental hygienist.

Raymie nightingale series