By Kate DiCamillo
A stray dog helps a lonely girl make a home in a new town, and helps her carry the ache of her mother leaving.
Ten-year-old Opal has just moved to a small Florida town with her preacher father, and she doesn't know a soul. Then she walks into the grocery store and comes out with a big, grinning, scruffy stray she names Winn-Dixie. That dog makes friends everywhere he goes, and one by one he leads Opal to the town's lonely people. A girl who started the summer with nobody ends it with a whole collection of unlikely friends, and a little more peace about the mother who left.
It's a real novel that never feels heavy to read, because the chapters are short and Opal tells the whole thing in a plain, funny, honest voice that sounds like a friend talking. Under that easy surface it's doing something tender: nearly everyone Opal meets is carrying a private sorrow, and the dog is what lets them finally share it. If your dog-lover is ready for a story that's more about people than adventure, but still has a dog right at the heart of it, this is a lovely first step.