Because of Winn-Dixie

Reader’s Review

This popular book by author Kate DiCamillo is a gentle story about a young girl and her love for a stray dog. She starts out as a lonely daughter of a preacher, but everything changes after she finds her dog Winn-Dixie. Suddenly she makes many friends in town, both young and old, and learns that everyone has a story. While the book has garnered great acclaim, there are some issues with it that make it a less popular choice for Muslims, one being the frequent mention of drinking and secondly the emphasis on everyone’s relationship with the dog. It is also a very sad book with discussions of abandonment, the drowning of a young child, and other sad stories (all that happen before the events of the story).

To look out for

• Islamic Values: Opal’s mother left her husband and daughter, and Opal misses her terribly even though she was young at the time. Opal’s father mentions that his wife had a drinking problem. Another older friend that Opal makes talks about how she used to drink and has a tree where she hung alcohol bottles to remind her of the mistakes she made when she was younger.