No one in children’s literature illuminates the interplay of heartbreak and hope like the two-time Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo (“Because of Winn-Dixie”; The Tale of Desperaux”). Her latest novel, BEVERLY, RIGHT HERE (Candlewick, 241 pp., $16.99; ages 10 and up), the third in a kind of trilogy that began with “Raymie Nightingale” and continued with “Louisiana’s Way Home,” may be her finest yet.

It’s 1979, four years since hard-nosed Beverly Tapinski became friends with Raymie and Louisiana and rescued a dog, Buddy, who became her own. Now Buddy is dead. Beverly “had run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid.” She’s 14 now, and this time she simply leaves, hitching a ride with a derelict cousin to Tamaray Beach, Fla. She finds a job busing tables at a greasy-spoon lunch restaurant