I watched the movie about this book several years ago, and although it was good, I must admit, that, as usual, the book was so much better than the movie!
The descriptions in this story are very unique. I love the way that Opal talks to Winn-Dixie; it truly makes him seem like a character with dialogue in this story. She never neglects to tell us how she thinks he feels, or what she thinks he is thinking about. For example, Opal asks him if he's ever been to north Florida and "Winn-Dixie looked down as the ground, like he was trying to remember if he had" (21). These descriptions really personify this dog.
There are other great descriptions in this novel as well. Although they are not all very detailed, Kate Dicamillo does not fail to give readers just enough information to intrigue readers and help them get the exact image of a place in their minds. She says that the church where her father preaches used to be a "Pick-It-Quick store" (32) and still has the store motto on the floor at the entrance, though her father did his best to remove it. From this imagery, one can almost see this small, older, country country town in Florida and the homey church.
There are implicit life-lessons in this book, which I think make this a wonderful classroom read. For example, Gloria Dump says: "...You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now" (96). This is a great lesson for children to learn about not judging people before you get to know them. Another lesson this book teaches is about the Civil War and how war changes people. This could be a very interesting topic to possibly discuss with children since they probably know people fighting in a war right now. "Because of Winn-Dixie" also teaches about learning to let go. Gloria says that: "There ain't no way you can hold on to something that wants to go...You can only love what you got while you got it" (159). This is a very hard lesson, but in the context of a dog like Winn-Dixie who was a stray and helped Opal learn to adapt to her new surroundings in the town of Naomi, it is very applicable to children. In addition, this story also teaches about synonyms. Opal says the lozenges make her feel sad and then Gloria links them to sorrow, and her father connects them to melancholy. This helps increase students' vocabulary, which I believe is always a good thing, especially when done in such a subtle way as this book does.
Reading this book gave me two good teaching ideas if I were to use this novel in the classroom. Since the lozenges' secret ingredient is something that makes people remember sad times, teachers could ask the students to create a recipe of a lozenge that included a secret ingredient that would make them feel happy, like chocolate, etc. Also, since lists of ten are prominent in "Because of Winn-Dixie," relating to Opal's mother and Winn-Dixie himself, teachers could ask students to make a ten-item list about things about a special family member or pet.
The descriptions in this story are very unique. I love the way that Opal talks to Winn-Dixie; it truly makes him seem like a character with dialogue in this story. She never neglects to tell us how she thinks he feels, or what she thinks he is thinking about. For example, Opal asks him if he's ever been to north Florida and "Winn-Dixie looked down as the ground, like he was trying to remember if he had" (21). These descriptions really personify this dog.
There are other great descriptions in this novel as well. Although they are not all very detailed, Kate Dicamillo does not fail to give readers just enough information to intrigue readers and help them get the exact image of a place in their minds. She says that the church where her father preaches used to be a "Pick-It-Quick store" (32) and still has the store motto on the floor at the entrance, though her father did his best to remove it. From this imagery, one can almost see this small, older, country country town in Florida and the homey church.
There are implicit life-lessons in this book, which I think make this a wonderful classroom read. For example, Gloria Dump says: "...You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now" (96). This is a great lesson for children to learn about not judging people before you get to know them. Another lesson this book teaches is about the Civil War and how war changes people. This could be a very interesting topic to possibly discuss with children since they probably know people fighting in a war right now. "Because of Winn-Dixie" also teaches about learning to let go. Gloria says that: "There ain't no way you can hold on to something that wants to go...You can only love what you got while you got it" (159). This is a very hard lesson, but in the context of a dog like Winn-Dixie who was a stray and helped Opal learn to adapt to her new surroundings in the town of Naomi, it is very applicable to children. In addition, this story also teaches about synonyms. Opal says the lozenges make her feel sad and then Gloria links them to sorrow, and her father connects them to melancholy. This helps increase students' vocabulary, which I believe is always a good thing, especially when done in such a subtle way as this book does.
Reading this book gave me two good teaching ideas if I were to use this novel in the classroom. Since the lozenges' secret ingredient is something that makes people remember sad times, teachers could ask the students to create a recipe of a lozenge that included a secret ingredient that would make them feel happy, like chocolate, etc. Also, since lists of ten are prominent in "Because of Winn-Dixie," relating to Opal's mother and Winn-Dixie himself, teachers could ask students to make a ten-item list about things about a special family member or pet.
(Image retrieved from http://syndetics.com/hw7.pl?client=crrlp&isbn=0763607762/MC.GIF on 19 April 2008)
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