This book is about a ten year old girl named Opal who is abandoned by her mother at a young age. She moves with her father, who is also a preacher, to a small town in Florida. Opal is lonely and missing her old friends, but is soon happy to find companionship with a rambunctious little dog she names Winn-Dixie, after finding him in that store. With Winn-Dixie's help she befriends many different townsfolk, and she even begins mending her relationship with her father. A class activity would be for students to write about a mistake they have made on their own paper bottles, and then place all the bottles on a tree in the classroom to show that everyone makes mistakes and that it is ok. Then have a class discussion why Gloria might have done this in the story.

Lexile: 670L