You can only love what you got while you got it - Story of Winn Dixie

Book Review of Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

It all started like this: Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo. After reading the book, we wanted to collect and read all the books by this author (a binge, as they say). But we hesitated to buy this one as it is about a dog. My daughter and I hate dogs; seriously, we fear them, and if a dog is on the road, we wait and move only after it moves. After many yes, no, and maybe we finally bought it. Scroll down for a detailed Book Review.

Some stories give us a feel of living in itself; Winn Dixie is one of those. The story teaches us friendship, hope, loss, and grief. 10-year-old India opal buloni just moved to Naomi, Florida, with her father, a preacher. One summer day she goes to a grocery store to buy some vegetables and groceries, where she finds a dog turning the store upside down by jumping on the veggies, pushing down the store manager, etc. Opal claims the dog to be hers as she feels that the dog is alone like her. Opal's mama left her when she was three and ran away. Her father, the preacher, is like a turtle who hides his face mostly inside a shell (that is how she thinks of him). Since it is a new city, she has no friends; she knows only those kids who attend church. She takes Winn Dixie home, and they both become best friends.

Through Winn-Dixie, she becomes friends with some adults, and through them with some kids on the town too, how they all change her life (to be apt, changes her approach towards life) in that summer is the story.

Throughout the pages, the story teaches us one thing: "There is no way you can hold on to something that wants to go; you can only love what you got while you got it.