BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE

BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Kate DiCamillo

Well known author, Kate DiCamillo, is a familiar name among children's book readers. As I was pouring over books, making choices for this year's literature class, I realized I had never read Because of Winn Dixie. I picked up a copy and was very quickly pulled into the world of India Opal Buloni otherwise known as "Opal."

Opal is an outgoing 10-year-old child, but she has a hole in her heart. Not a physical one, but an emotional one. When she was young, her mother left her and her preacher father and never looked back. Opal wants friends. She wants to belong. She wants to matter. The doors aren't really opening for her until Winn-Dixie comes into her life.

Winn-Dixie is a dog that happened to be in a Winn-Dixie grocery store the same day that Opal was shopping for some Mac and cheese, white rice, and 2 tomatoes. When the store manager goes berserk wanting to know whose dog is in the store, Opal steps forward and claims the raggedy stray as her own. What follows is a series of events that allows Opal to become more a part of people's lives around her, and it is all Because of Winn-Dixie.

This book is very moving. When stepping into the pages several themes hit the reader square on. Abandonment, saving, responsibility, forgiveness, belonging are a few of them. There are Opals all around each of us waiting for a Winn-Dixie. They don't have to come in the shape of a dog. They can come in human form as well.