Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo

I picked up Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie from the library yesterday afternoon on the way home from work and began reading it at 4 pm as I rode home on the bus. By the time I finished eating dinner at 6.30 pm I'd also finished reading the book - it's under 200 pages in the UK edition and that's relatively large type on relatively small pages. So that's part of the reason I finished it so soon. But the other part is that it's actually quite difficult to put down ! I don't read much fiction that isn't fantasy; there's so much fantasy fiction out there for one thing, and since I also write about the genre, there's a certain obligation for me to be as widely read as possible in the genre, if I'm going to write about it intelligently and originally. Still, I'd heard a lot about this book on Child_Lit, particularly with it being made into a film earlier this year.

The book opens thus:
"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."

- and immediately I was wondering how Opal (as everyone calls her) managed to go home with a dog rather than the groceries for which she was sent out... Opal is 10 when the book opens, and feeling lonely in a new town to which she and her father have moved as the preacher. However she makes several friends amongst the town's residents and gets a part time job, all because of Winn-Dixie, as she names the stray dog she discovers wreaking havoc in the local Winn-Dixie grocery store.

This is a brilliant story and ideal for children who are moving to a new area because it shows that although making friends isn't always easy, it is possible and sometimes one can make new friends in unexpected ways. I think I actually liked this book better than the other Kate DiCamillo book I've read: The Tale of Despereaux. I've added Because of Winn-Dixie to my Amazon.co.uk wishlist and the next time I've got some Amazon credit to spend, I'll buy it.

On a side note, look out for the new Emma Thompson film, Nanny McPhee which opens in the UK on October 21. Thompson has adapted the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand into a film starring herself (unrecognisably) as the eponymous Nanny, Colin Firth and Thomas Sangster (who both starred in Love Actually), Celia Imrie, Imelda Staunton and Angela Lansbury. If the trailer I saw is anything to go by, this is going to be very funny and a real family film.