BOOK COVER IMAGE:
BOOK SUMMARY:
India Opal Buloni is a 10 year old girl who has just moved to Naomi, Florida with her father, the preacher. Opal has a difficult time making friends but all that changes when she meets and adopts Winn-Dixie, a stray dog she found inside the store of his namesake. After she convinces her father to allow Winn-Dixie to stay, Opal begins her summer adventures, meeting new friends, forming a relationship with her father and most of all, learning about her absent mother. The Preacher tells Opal 10 things about her mother, two of them revealing reasons she may have left: she drank a lot and hated being a preacher's wife. Opal writes the 10 descriptors and reads them to Winn-Dixie in hopes of never forgetting and as a way of remembering her mother should she return. Despite her sadness, Opal meets new friends such as Miss Franny Block, the librarian of the Herman W. Block Memorial Library and Gloria Dump, the "town witch" who turns out to be a wonderful old lady. If Winn-Dixie hadn't run into Gloria's garden, then Opal would never have met the woman that listened to all that Opal had to say about their recent move and her mother's abandonment. Even Otis who works at Gertrude's Pet store, shows Opal that people are not always what they seem. All of her newly-found family makes Opal want to throw a party, just like in the book she is reading to Gloria Dump, Gone with the Wind. The party, held in Gloria's backyard, gets rained out, which causes Winn-Dixie to go missing. Opal and her father search everywhere and it is during this moment when emotions are high, that Opal accuses the preacher of quitting, just like when the mom left. This is the first time Opal sees her father cry and they both realize that they have each other. Opal learns that she is not alone and her pain is slowly healing through the many friendships she has made.
APA REFERENCE OF BOOK:
DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick
Press.
IMPRESSIONS:
It is difficult to read this book and not cry; so much of what Opal experiences tugs at the heart. The idea of a young child mourning the loss of her mother who is still very much alive, is a difficult concept to grasp, yet very much realistic. Kate DiCamillo accomplishes the task of writing about abandonment and isolation, which is never easy to discuss and balances it well with friendship and hope. Opal learns a valuable lesson about family coming all shapes and forms. She realizes that she is not alone and begins to love her father again because she understands that he is still around, unlike her mother. All that happens to Opal seems possible because of her new companion, Winn-Dixie. Winn-Dixie forces conversations between Opal and the Preacher and he even causes Opal to venture into place she would never have before, such as Gloria Dump's back yard. This is a wonderful story about loss and hope that every child should read.
PROFESSIONAL REVIEW:
"According to Miss Franny Block, the town librarian in Naomi, Florida, her great-grandfather made his fortune after the Civil War by manufacturing a candy "that tasted sweet and sad at the same time." Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni (called Opal) thinks this description of the candy sounds a lot like life, where "the sweet and the sad were all mixed up together," too. It's also a pretty apt description of this engaging Southern-style first-person novel, featuring a girl and dog with a lot to offer each other. Children's literature is full of animal-to-the-rescue stories, but rarely does salvation come in the form of a creature with as much personality as Winn-Dixie. When Opal, who has just moved to town with her preacher father, discovers him cheerfully knocking over produce in the Winn-Dixie supermarket one day, it's obvious he's a stray. "Mostly, he looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain." His friendly manner, which involves pulling back his lips into what appears to be a smile, wins her over and, luckily, wins her father over as well. As if in gratitude for giving him a good home, Winn-Dixie immediately begins easing Opal's troubles, helping her make friends, who in turn help her come to terms with the fact that her mother abandoned her and probably won't be back. The story teeters on the edge of sentimentality and sometimes topples right in, but the characters are so likable, so genuine, it's an easy flaw to forgive. All in all, this is a gentle book about good people coming together to combat loneliness and heartache--with a little canine assistance.'" - Christine M. Hepperman
Reference:
Hepperman, C.M. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie [Review of the book Because of Winn-Dixie]. Horn Book Magazine, 76(4), 455-456.
LIBRARY USES:
Since there is a movie version of this book, a great activity would be to compare/contrast some of the text with scenes from the film and have students discuss adaptation and whether directors are true to the text and whether or not that matters.
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