From July through December, 5 Minutes for Books is sponsoring Children's Award Winning Classics in which we all read award-winning children's books (well, duh; hence, the name!! lol)
I was looking for some light reading/listening and decided to finally read Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo which I have wanted to read ever since Tucker's class read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and I LOVED it!
Winner of the 2001 Newbery Honor Award, this story is about a young girl, India Opal, who has just moved to FL with her father, a preacher. Her mother died when she was little and she struggles with this a little each day. She meets a dog at the local grocery store and names him Winn-Dixie after the store. Winn-Dixie leads Opal to meet many wonderful people that she may not have otherwise and as she talks with them, she collects stories and thinks about her mother. Opal grows up that summer as she learns what friendship is all about.
I enjoyed this simple story and loved the characters in it. I was touched by Opal's desire to find out more about about her mother and to grow closer to her father. She learned about friendship from a pretty eclectic group of people and grew because of her experiences with them.
I've really enjoyed DiCamillo's works, too. My favorites are Tiger Rising and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Here's a link to my review of Edward Tulane, if you're interested ---> http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2010/07/16/the-miraculous-journey-of-edward-tulane-by-kate-dicamillo/
ReplyDeleteMy son and I read this one together a couple of years ago, and we watched the movie as well, which I thought did a nice job representing the story. DiCamillo is one of those authors who seems to be able to do no wrong. :)
ReplyDelete-Dawn, 5minutesforbooks.com