Because of Winn Dixie – an easy, fun read
Of all the kids novels we’ve read, Because of Winn Dixie is my daughter’s favorite. The kids got the movie for Christmas, and watched it before I realized it was a book too. I’m usually a purist – have to read the book first!! But the horse was out of the barn on this one, and I went ahead and got the book so we could read it together.
It worked out great. Unlike me, who usually feels like the book is spoiled if I’ve seen the movie first, the kids really were engaged in the story. They liked the fact that they could anticipate what happened next, and really enjoyed the book. They also seemed pretty interested in the fact that the book was a little bit different than the movie, and we spent some time talking about the differences. They also liked the fact that I still haven’t seen the movie, so they felt like they were teaching me something, too.
I thought the book worked pretty well for reading aloud – it was mostly plot-driven, and it was a little bit suspenseful. My daughter liked the subject matter more than my son, but I couldn’t tell whether it was more interesting to my daughter because she’s older, or maybe because the main character was a girl.
The author, Kate DiCamillo, also wrote Tale of Despereaux, Tiger Rising, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
My daughter is reading chapter books independently now, so since we finished Because of Winn Dixie, she has started re-reading it on her own. My son is just on the cusp of wanting to read himself, so we haven’t started any long read alouds this week. I’ve been letting my daughter read to herself while I help my son read some “easy readers.” I’ll talk about a couple of those next time.
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