Because of Winn-Dixie

Because of Winn-Dixie

By Kate DiCamillo

Novel:  4^th-6^th grade

5 Stars

Because of Winn-Dixie is the story of ten year-old India Opal Buloni, Winn Dixie, the dog she rescues, and the collection of lonely, odd-ball townspeople that they bring together. 

I sometimes feel like a collector of somewhat strange people.  Aloof, interesting, and eccentric people seem to gravitate towards me, and while I’m grateful that I get to hear some of their stories, I’m always left with the feeling that these people are lonely, and that there’s nothing that I can do to change that fact.  In Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal and Winn Dixie are able to make a community out of the interesting, lonely people that Opal meets.  Opal and Winn Dixie bring together their strange friends in a way that helps all of them to heal a little bit.  This book reminded me of the picture book, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch in that both stories have characters who are initially left out.  In both books, the characters join their communities and both the main characters and the people that they come into contact with benefit from their new relationships.

Based on my first paragraph, you might think that Because of Winn-Dixie sounds a bit hokey.  As the book drew to a close, I was afraid that DiCamillo was going to finish her book with a perfect happily-ever-after ending.  Without giving everything away, Opal’s problems don’t all disappear.  She learns some hard lessons, like when Gloria tells her, “There ain’t no way you can hold on to something that wants to go, you understand?  You can only love what you got while you got it, “(DiCamillo, 159).    As Turnell and Jacobs mentioned in their article, “How to recognize a Well-Written Book”,  “Good books can and do provide lessons, but in good books, the story is primary and the lessons are secondary.  They are secrets to be discovered rather than sermons to be suffered,” (26).  DiCamillo has hidden many lessons in her book.  They pop up now and then without sounding preachy and without disrupting the plot.

I think that I would read this novel as a read-aloud book sometime in the beginning of a school year.  I think that it could spark some conversations on community, friendship, and inclusion.  This book would fit well into a community theme and would be a fun book to start the school year.