Module 7: Because of Winn Dixie - Realistic Fiction

Book Summary: 
Opal and her father, who is a preacher, move to a new town in Florida.  Opal does not have any friends when she gets to the town.  She finds a dog at the local Winn Dixie grocery store and decides to take the dog home.  She names the dog Winn Dixie in honor of where she and the dog were brought together.  Opal takes the Winn Dixie with her on all of her adventures that she has in summer.  She meets many people in her small town and begins to make friends, with a little assistance and guidance from Winn Dixie.  She learns to be accepting and non-judgmental of people and the choices that they make in life.  She also learns how to cope and understand why her mother abandoned her and her father.

APA Reference:

DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Impressions:

 Opal has to find new friends, get a job to buy the red collar and red leash for Winn-Dixie, learn how to accept others without judgment and coping with not having a mother in her life.  She finds surrogate mothers, Miss Franny Block the librarian and Gloria Dump, an older woman in her community to help her and teach her basic life skills and just be her friend.  She also has to learn how to make friends in her new town of Naomi, Florida. Opal has to overcome her fear that they might not like her because she is the preacher’s daughter and that they will overlook their differences. This is a darling story that all ages can enjoy.  It is about friendship, dealing with loss and looking for the best in others.  Opal makes friends with animals younger kids, boys, older men and women. The conversations that she has with all of the characters who taste the Littmus Lozenges, a candy that was made by Franny Block’s great -grandfather,  reach out to the heart of anyone who has experienced sorrow in their lives.  The lozenges bring out the sweetness and the sorrow in life.  This is a concept that the reader can relate to because in life there are times when life is sweet and times when life is sorrowful and it is how people learn to overcome the sorrow and begin to find the sweetness in life that people can understand and connect with each other. The lessons of love, loss, friendship and acceptance that are taught in this sweet, simple story are timeless and a good reminder of how to live a joyful life.

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

Hepperman, C.M. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Horn Book Magazine, 76(4), 455-456.

Library Uses:

This book could be used to introduce realistic fiction to students.  A venn diagram could be used to compare and contrast the life of Opal and the lives of the students.