I thought that Because of Winn-Dixie was a cute book. It was written by Kate DiCamillo and was a Newberry honor book for 2001. It is the story of India Opal Buloni, a young girl who has recently moved to Naomi, Florida, with her preacher-daddy. Her mother left them when Opal was a baby, and she has wondered about and missed her mama ever since. Being the new kid in town, Opal decides she needs new friends. She sets out in Naomi with that goal in mind. Along the way she is introduced to Otis, a guitar-playing, slow-minded man who manages the local pet store; Miss Franny Block, the librarian at the Herman W. Block Memorial Library; Gloria Dump, an eccentric woman whom the local children believe to be a witch; Amanda Wilkinson, a pinch-faced girl the same age as Opal who, it is later revealed, is so pinch-faced because she loses her little brother to a drowning accident the summer before. But no friend sticks closer to Opal than the dog she discovers in the produce section of the Winn-Dixie.
I read this book to Bitty, and she and I both thought it was a fun book. It is not one I would have read on my own, as it is more elementary than many classic children’s books. However, it is a delightful little story.
I found some great teaching resources for this book at this website.
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