Because of Winn-Dixie

Title: Because of Winn-Dixie
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Genre: Fiction

Summary:
This Newberry winner tells the story of a little girl named Opal. The story takes place the summer that Opal and her father, who is a preacher, move to Naomi, Florida. One day while running an errand at the local Winn-Dixie, Opal meets someone who will change her life. That day Opal meets a big ugly, dog who is clearly a stray. Not wanting anything bad to happen to the dog, Opal decides to take him home with her and name him Winn-Dixie in honor of the place of their first meeting. This story goes on to tell how Opal's friendship with Winn-Dixie changes her life for the better. Because of Winn-Dixie Opal learns about her mother, how to make friends, and how to forgive. This book portrays a colorful cast of characters and a heart warming story that will touch every reader.

Making the Connection:
Using this book in the classroom is an excellent way to build student's knowledge of literary elements. Because of Winn-Dixie is the perfect book to further discuss the concepts of plot, setting, characters, and themes in your class. A cool activity to utilize in your classroom upon the completion of this book would be making a character scrap book. First you would have to pick four or five characters for your students to concentrate on. Next students would go back through the text and pick out passages that described each of the specified characters. Students would look for not only each character's physical description, but also descriptions of their personality and behavior. Once students had collected enough information to list at least five traits for each character, they would then begin compiling their scrape books. The students would be expected to list each character's traits and provide a picture of what the character looks like based on their physical descriptions (which is great because the book has no pictures). The students would then share their completed scrapbooks with their peers.