Because Of Kate DiCamillo

It was my father, of guy all people, who turned me on to the novels of Kate DiCamillo.

This was in the early 00s—the beginning of the end-stretch of his life.

By then he'd bought into everything that Kate DiCamillo’s characters fight against--a jaded, toxic view of the world.

And yet...

He was in a book store, looking for a gift for my youngest daughter and he found a youth-book called Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, an author he'd never heard of.

He picked it up largely cause he remembered Winn-Dixie as a chain of stores from his days living in the south.

He read it when he got home--before he gave it to my daughter--and it made him cry. I know cause I saw him wiping away the tears--in a hurry. Clearly, he didn't want anyone to see him crying over a kid's book.

I read it then and from time to time I've read it again. Or whenever I feel a need to have a more optimistic outlook of human beings.

Like right now. Man, gimme a double dose of Kate DiCamillo books, please!

You don't have to be a kid to love Kate DiCamillo books...

Winn-Dixie is about a young girl who’s the new kid in a small town in Florida, where she’s settled with her father a few years after her mother has abandoned them. Got that—she was abandoned by her mother. Which might be every kid’s nightmare.  

As she’s hating her misfortune and trying not to blame herself for what her mother did to her, she and her father take in a stray dog, a mutt named Winn-Dixie. And eventually that dog gets people to change their outlook and, as a result, their lives. For the better.

Winn-Dixie turned me on to the joys of Kate DiCamillo. And I've been reading and re-reading her books ever since. My personal favorite is probably The Tiger Rising. But read them and judge for yourself.

Similar themes in many. A girl who's lost her mother, finding her way in a hostile world by extending love and gratitude and generosity wherever she goes.

Dedicated to the belief--as corny as it sounds--that people can change for the better. If they lower their defenses, open their hearts and treat others as they'd want others to treat them.

Imagine that.

I'd like to report that upon reading Winn-Dixie, my father changed his ways and opened his heart and lowered his defenses and started treating others as he would want to be treated.

Alas, he only grew more toxic and bitter until the day he died.

But that's not Kate DiCamillo's fault. There's only so much one book can do, even a great one. Like Winn-Dixie.

Get it from the library or buy it from a book store. While you’re at it—buy a copy for a friend.