Module 7: Because of Winn Dixie

Book Summary: The story is one of a little girl that lives with her father the preacher and they move to a new town.  There she meets a stray dog that she adopts and they become friends.  She then realizes that not everything is as it seems.

APA Reference of Book: DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Impressions: The book is very easy to read and it sucks you in from the first moment that you pick it up.  The voices in the book are friendly and the book is one of those that teaches a lesson to the kiddos that not every book should be judged by its cover.  This book will teach the kids how to see beyond what’s on the outside, or beyond other’s perceptions.  This book has a thing or two that kids and adults alike can learn about giving people a chance.  I also enjoyed that the dog that was such a terror at the beginning, becomes someone that the little girl relies on.     

Professional Review: Like Kimberly Willis Holt's When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (1999), this novel joins the long tradition of fiction exploring a small southern town's eccentric characters. It's summer, and 10-year-old India Opal Buloni moves with her preacher father to tiny Naomi, Florida. She's lonely at first, but Winn-Dixie, the stray dog of the title, helps her befriend a group of lovable, quirky locals, eventually bringing her closer to her father and the truth about her mother, who left the family when India was 3. Told in India's sensitive, believable voice, the story is most successful in detailing the appealing cast of characters, including Otis, an ex-convict, musician, and pet store manager; Miss Franny, a Willie Wonkaesque librarian whose "Litmus Lozenges" candies taste like sorrow; and nearly blind Gloria Dump, whose tree hung with empty liquor bottles reminds her of "the ghosts of all the things I done wrong." While some of the dialogue and the book's "life lessons" can feel heavy-handed, readers will connect with India's love for her pet and her open-minded, free-spirited efforts to make friends and build a community.

Engberg, G. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie.  (Book Review). Booklist, 96(17), 1665.

Library Uses: I would ask the students to tell me what they have learned about friendship from this book.  I would also ask all the kids to make a list of 10 things that we may not know about them, or 10 things that they think are amazing about them and then we would share these lists, so that we can learn more about each other.