Because of Winn-Dixie (Reissue)

by Kate DiCamillo

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The unforgettable story of the power of companionship, especially when that companion is a dog. India’s fish-out-of-water personality meets its match in Winn Dixie, a dog who inspires her to be bold, be confident, and be herself. Get inspired to ask the questions you’ve put off asking and do the things you’ve put off doing. And maybe get a dog too.

The #1 New York Times bestseller and beloved classic includes an afterword from the author.

One summer’s day, ten-year-old India Opal Buloni goes down to the local supermarket for some groceries—and comes home with a dog. But Winn-Dixie is no ordinary dog. It’s because of Winn-Dixie that Opal begins to make friends. And it’s because of Winn-Dixie that she finally dares to ask her father about her mother, who left when Opal was three. In fact, as Opal admits, just about everything that happens that summer is because of Winn-Dixie. “This book is (I hope) a hymn of praise to dogs, friendship, and the South,” Kate DiCamillo said of her best-selling debut novel, which has been awarded a Newbery Honor, translated into nearly thirty languages, and turned into a major motion picture. The story of a preacher’s daughter named Opal whose life is transformed by a scruffy dog named Winn-Dixie continues to touch the hearts of readers of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536214352
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	670L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kate DiCamillo is the beloved author of many books for young readers, including the Orris and Timble, Mercy Watson, and Tales from Mercy Watson’s Deckawoo Drive series. Her books Flora & Ulysses and The Tale of Despereaux both received Newbery Medals. A former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, she lives in Minneapolis.

Hometown:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

March 25, 1964

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A. in English, University of Florida at Gainesville, 1987

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog. This is what happened: I walked into the produce section of the Winn-Dixie grocery store to pick out my two tomatoes and I almost bumped right into the store manager. He was standing there all red-faced, screaming and waving his arms around.
   “Who let a dog in here?” he kept on shouting. “Who let a dirty dog in here?”
   At first, I didn’t see a dog. There were just a lot of vegetables rolling around on the floor, tomatoes and onions and green peppers. And there was what seemed like a whole army of Winn-Dixie employees running around waving their arms just the same way the store manager was waving his.
   And then the dog came running around the corner. He was a big dog. And ugly. And he looked like he was having a real good time. His tongue was hanging out and he was wagging his tail. He skidded to a stop and smiled right at me. I had never before in my life seen a dog smile, but that is what he did. He pulled back his lips and showed me all his teeth. Then he wagged his tail so hard that he knocked some oranges off a display, and they went rolling everywhere, mixing in with the tomatoes and onions and green peppers.
   The manager screamed, “Somebody grab that dog!”
   The dog went running over to the manager, wagging his tail and smiling. He stood up on his hind legs. You could tell that all he wanted to do was get face to face with the manager and thank him for the good time he was having in the produce department, but somehow he ended up knocking the manager over. And the manager must have been having a bad day, because lying there on the floor, right in front of everybody, he started to cry. The dog leaned over him, real concerned, and licked his face.
   “Please,” said the manager. “Somebody call the pound.”
   “Wait a minute!” I hollered. “That’s my dog. Don’t call the pound.”
   All the Winn-Dixie employees turned around and looked at me, and I knew I had done something big. And maybe stupid, too. But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t let that dog go to the pound.
   “Here, boy,” I said.
   The dog stopped licking the manager’s face and put his ears up in the air and looked at me, like he was trying to remember where he knew me from.
   “Here, boy,” I said again. And then I figured that the dog was probably just like everybody else in the world, that he would want to get called by a name, only I didn’t know what his name was, so I just said the first thing that came into my head. I said, “Here, Winn-Dixie.”
   And that dog came trotting over to me just like he had been doing it his whole life.
   The manager sat up and gave me a hard stare, like maybe I was making fun of him.
   “It’s his name,” I said. “Honest.”
   The manager said, “Don’t you know not to bring a dog into a grocery store?”
   “Yes sir,” I told him. “He got in by mistake. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.
   “Come on, Winn-Dixie,” I said to the dog.
   I started walking and he followed along behind me as I went out of the produce department and down the cereal aisle and past all the cashiers and out the door.
   Once we were safe outside, I checked him over real careful and he didn’t look that good. He was big, but skinny; you could see his ribs. And there were bald patches all over him, places where he didn’t have any fur at all. Mostly, he looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.
   “You’re a mess,” I told him. “I bet you don’t belong to anybody.”
   He smiled at me. He did that thing again, where he pulled back his lips and showed me his teeth. He smiled so big that it made him sneeze. It was like he was saying, “I know I’m a mess. Isn’t it funny?”
   It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.
   “Come on,” I told him. “Let’s see what the preacher has to say about you.”
   And the two of us, me and Winn-Dixie, started walking home.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"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." — Karen Hesse, author of the Newbery-award winner Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse

Karen Hesse, Newberry Award-winning author of Out of the Dust
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.

Editorial Reviews

"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." — Karen Hesse, author of the Newbery-award winner Out of the Dust

“Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow, and hope. And it's funny, too. A real gem.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[E]xquisitely crafted first novel. Each chapter possesses an arc of its own and reads almost like a short story in its completeness; yet the chapters add up to much more than a sum of their parts . . . This bittersweet tale of contemporary life in a small Southern town will hold readers rapt.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A gentle book about good people coming together to combat lonliness and heartache—with a little canine assistance.”
– The Horn Book

“This well-crafted, realistic, and heartwarming story will be read and reread as a new favorite deserving a long-term place on library shelves.”
–School Library Journal (starred review)

“ Poignant and delicately told.” – The New York Times Book Review

“The books' truthfulness is what makes it so powerful. People can identify with the fact that everyone sort of isolates themselves because of a misconnection or a loss or whatever is in their lives.”
–Newsday

“It's the kind of book people love and tell their friends to read.”
–Washington Post

“An enchanting little book with a touch of magic, a cast of great characters, and a lot of real life and wisdom.”
–Star Tribune

“Both kids and grown-ups love it . . . it's a great read-aloud book . . . it has scooped up numerous awards . . . it's an unforgettable story about making friends.”
– Orlando Sentinel

From the Publisher

India Opal Buloni, called Opal by the people who know her best, thought love walked out on her when her mother left seven years ago. Ever since, this young girl has waited for her mother's return, questioning her father about this woman, now a stranger, so that she would recognize her when she came back. But in waiting, the heroine of Kate DiCamillo's heartfelt debut story, Because of Winn-Dixie, learns valuable lessons about friendship, love, and understanding.

The summer ten-year-old Opal and her father move to Naomi, Florida, is the same summer Opal adopts Winn-Dixie, the scrappy dog abandoned in the town grocery store. Her canine pal, with a lively spirit matching its new owner, accompanies Opal as she meets new people. One afternoon Winn-Dixie wanders off, and Opal finds her dog snacking on peanut butter at the house of the woman deemed a witch by Opal's bothersome playmates. To her surprise, this "witch" is actually Gloria Dump who has wrinkly old skin and wears a big floppy hat adorned with printed flowers. In their regular visits, Opal reads Gone with the Wind to Gloria, whose eyes have weakened with age, and tells her about her latest adventures. In turn, this "witch" acts as a mother-figure to Opal, teaching her about being tolerant of others and their mistakes.

Opal also befriends the very wealthy librarian Miss Franny Block, who shares great stories about her past, including a tale about her great-grandfather, whose family members died while he fought for the South in the Civil War. Grief-stricken after his return from battle, he decided he wanted to live the remainder of his life filled with sweetness. Thus, he invented Littmus Lozenge candies that tasted like a combination of rootbeer and strawberry with a secret ingredient mixed in -- sorrow. In Because of Winn-Dixie, these candies symbolize that even though life sometimes deals people a bit of sadness, there is always so much to appreciate.

This lesson initially escapes Opal, as she bemoans the loss of her mother. But over time, Opal makes new friends, and her days become increasingly sweet. She finds charm in quiet Otis, a former jailbird and now pet-shop worker whose lyrical music touches all of the animals in the shop. She reaches out to the pinch-faced Amanda who has experienced a deep tragedy at a young age. And she learns to tolerate the bothersome Dewberry brothers who tease her (as many boys do when they have fond feelings toward a girl).

Enveloped by the security that her new community brings, Opal finally appreciates life's treasures and begins to accept that her mother is never coming back. By the end of Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal truly understands Gloria has been telling her all along: "...[Y]ou can't hold on to anything. ...[Y]ou can only love what you've got while you've got it." The spirit of DiCamillo's delightful story about Opal echoes long after the last page has been read.

--Soozan Baxter

barnesandnoble.com

When ten-year-old Opeal Buloni and her preacher father moved to Naomi, Florida, she adopts a dog and names him Winn-Dixie (after the supermarket where they met). Opal was 3 when her mother left the family. Her father won't speak of her mother. The young girl is lonely, but with the help of her friendly dog, she makes new friends and discovers that life still has a great deal to offer both she and her father. Superb narration by Cherry Jones.

This complicated and wonderful story is not so much about a dog as it is about friendship and loving what you got while you got it.
—Bookbag Magazine

Esmé Raji Codell

This complicated and wonderful story is not so much about a dog as it is about friendship and loving what you got while you got it.
—Bookbag Magazine

Esme R. Codell