Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: Friendship, Tolerance, Forgiveness, Coming of Age
Grade Level: 3-5
Curricular Connections: Reading (Read Aloud), Social Studies (Civil War), Health (Alcoholism)

The book begins with Opal telling the readers how she came across a stray dog in the Winn-Dixie grocery store and even though he was ugly and big, Winn Dixie is just want she needed. Her alcoholic mother had abandoned Opal and her father, a preacher, and they have just moved to a small town in Florida. Opal, a lonesome girl who is struggling to understand why her mother left, learns to make friends with unlikely people with the help of Winn Dixie. She makes friends with the mean bald-headed Dewberry twins, pinch-faced Amanda, Otis, the ex-con pet store worker, Miss Franny the librarian, and Gloria Dump, the rumored town witch, who teaches her about forgiveness, love, and moving forward. Opal brings these characters together with her father, and in the end they all work together to help her find Winn Dixie who runs off during a thunderstorm.

Classroom Suggestions:

1. Students could construct a tree like Gloria Dump's and hang plastic bottles from it with labels on them telling of habits they would like to break, or in the positive they could label them with goals they will work to achieve.

2. Students could learn about and discuss the physical and psycological effects of alcohol addiction.

3. Students could look up and discuss the meaning of the word "meloncholy". They can then do a writing assignment telling about times they felt meloncholy.