70 pages 2 hours read

Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn-Dixie

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000

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Chapters 1-4

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

India Opal Buloni, the narrator, begins to tell the story of finding her dog. She was sent to the Winn-Dixie grocery store by her father, whom she calls the preacher, to get some basic groceries. Halfway through the trip, the store manager and other employees fly into a panic over a dog that has gotten loose in the store. They demand someone take the dog to the pound, but Opal likes the dog. She thinks it is cute with a good disposition: “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor” (12). She claims the dog, makes up a name for him—Winn-Dixie, the first thing that comes to her mind—and Winn-Dixie follows her outside. She inspects the dog and finds him in bad shape. Clearly, he does not belong to anyone.

Chapter 2 Summary

On the way home, Opal explains her name to Winn-Dixie. She was named India, after the country where her father was a missionary, though her father calls her by her middle name, Opal, because it is his mother’s name, and he loved his mother very much. She also explains that Winn-Dixie must behave, because she and

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