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Take one disarmingly engaging protagonist and put her in the company of a tenderly rendered canine, and you've got yourself a recipe for the best kind of down-home literary treat. Kate DiCamillo's voice in Because of Winn-Dixie should carry from the steamy, sultry pockets of Florida clear across the miles to enchant young readers everywhere.
The summer Opal and her father, the preacher,
move to Naomi, Florida, Opal goes into the Winn-Dixie supermarket--and comes
out with a dog. A big, ugly, suffering dog with a sterling sense of humor. A
dog she dubs Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, the preacher tells Opal ten
things about her absent mother, one for each year Opal has been alive.
Winn-Dixie is better at making friends than anyone Opal has ever known, and
together they meet the local librarian, Miss Franny Block, who once fought
off a bear with a copy of War and Peace. They meet Gloria Dump, who
is nearly blind but sees with her heart, and Otis, an ex-con who sets the
animals in his pet shop loose after hours, then lulls them with his guitar.
Opal spends all that sweet summer collecting stories about her new friends
and thinking about her mother. But because of Winn-Dixie or perhaps because
she has grown, Opal learns to let go, just a little, and that
friendship--and forgiveness--can sneak up on you like a sudden summer storm.
Recalling the fiction of Harper Lee and Carson McCullers, here is a funny,
poignant, and utterly genuine first novel from a major new talent.
Winner of the 2001 Newbery Honor Award.
If you liked Because of Winn-Dixie, try these:
by Clare Vanderpool
Published 2011
Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool's debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.
The Year the Swallows Came Early
by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Published 2011
Eleanor "Groovy" Robinson loves cooking, but things start to go wrong the year she turns eleven - suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend's long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows arrive early.
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