Gillian Engberg (Booklist, May 1, 2000 (Vol. 96, No. 17))
Like Kimberly Willis Holt's When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (1999), this novel joins the long tradition of fiction exploring a small southern town's eccentric characters. It's summer, and 10-year-old India Opal Buloni moves with her preacher father to tiny Naomi, Florida. She's lonely at first, but Winn-Dixie, the stray dog of the title, helps her befriend a group of lovable, quirky locals, eventually bringing her closer to her father and the truth about her mother, who left the family when India was 3. Told in India's sensitive, believable voice, the story is most successful in detailing the appealing cast of characters, including Otis, an ex-convict, musician, and pet store manager; Miss Franny, a Willie Wonkaesque librarian whose "Litmus Lozenges" candies taste like sorrow; and nearly blind Gloria Dump, whose tree hung with empty liquor bottles reminds her of "the ghosts of all the things I done wrong." While some of the dialogue and the book's "life lessons" can feel heavy-handed, readers will connect with India's love for her pet and her open-minded, free-spirited efforts to make friends and build a community. Category: Middle Readers. 2000, Candlewick, $15.99. Gr. 4-6.

Jan Lieberman (Children's Literature)
Imagine naming a dog "Winn-Dixie" after the grocery store. Your own name causes kids to mock you "Lunch Meat!" That partly describes India Opal Buloni, a preacher's daughter, who tells us about her first summer in Naomi, Florida. Opal adopts the lovable, mangy dog whose personality changes her life and the lives of the quirky characters in this rural community. The kids think Gloria Dump is a witch but Opal discovers a kind, wrinkled old lady with bad eyesight who wins her friendship when she says, "Since I don't see so well, why don't you tell me everything about yourself so I can see you with my heart." Opal couldn't be happier. "I'd been waiting for a long time to tell some person everything about me, I did." A splendid story with heart, humor and hope. This is Newbery quality. 2000, Candlewick, $15.99. Ages 9 up.

Dia L. Michels (Children's Literature)
Sometimes when you lose your mother, you lose your father, too. That's what has happened to India Opal when we meet her in this gentle and heartwarming novel. Ten-year old India Opal has just moved to a new town with her father, a preacher, who has not recovered from India's mother walking out on them. Facing the double loss of her mother and her friends from her old town, and living with an emotionally crippled father, India has to find her own way. And she does--with courage, charisma, and charm--aided by her new best friend, a large dirty, abandoned dog who has an unresolved past of his own. The two of them, India Opal and Winn-Dixie, learn about friendship, fear, loss, and love. For children and adults alike, this book is a celebration of life. 2000, Candlewick Press, $15.99. Ages 10 to 13.

John D. Orsborn (Children's Literature)
A child's innocence and passion are explored in this wonderful tale. As a new arrival to the town of Naomi Florida, India Opal Buloni's life is stirred up when she meets a raggedy dog she names Winn-Dixie. India is a disarming and intriguing child, full of sadness and questions regarding her mother who left the family. India finds hope and truth through her interactions with some of the people of her new town. Miss Franny Block, Naomi's librarian, opens India's heart and mind with stories and memories of the town. Otis, the man responsible for the pet shop, helps India see that everyone has something magical within, regardless of their past. Miss Gloria Dump, though mostly blind, helps India see into people's hearts. India's greatest triumph is with her father who, through the help of India and Winn-Dixie, learns to open up about her mother's leaving. The finale, a party with this odd group of friends, gives a heart-warming conclusion to this story. 2000, Candlewick Press, $15.99. Ages 10 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2001)
Ten-year-old Opal Buloni and her minister father have just moved to Naomi, Florida. Opal's father is a sweet, sad man who clearly loves his daughter but is too involved with his work and his own heartache to give her all the attention she craves. It is only with much insistence that Opal finally gets him to tell her ten things about her mama ("one thing for each year I've been alive"), who left them years earlier. Opal can't give up on the idea that her mama will return someday. But in the meantime, with her father intent on his work, the stray dog that she met at a supermarket and christened Winn-Dixie is Opal's sole companion as the summer begins. Both Winn-Dixie and Opal prove to have a knack for friendship. They form a bond with the elderly Miss Franny Block, town librarian, then with the small girl Sweetie Pie, and then with Gloria Dump, who has an open, welcoming way and a jungle-like backyard that becomes one of their favorite haunts. Soon Opal makes friends her own age, discovering that even the bothersome Stevie and Dunlap Dewberry have redeeming qualities. Kate Di Camillo's debut novel is alive with colorful, full-hearted characters that never cross into caricature. The story, in which Opal and her father come to realize that they are a whole family despite her mother's absence, has a feel of the slow summer days of childhood. CCBC categories: Fiction for Children. 2000, Candlewick Press, 182 pages, $15.99. Ages 9-12.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 7))
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice. India Opal's mama left when she was only three, and her father, "the preacher," is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who "looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain." But, this dog had a grin "so big that it made him sneeze." And, as Opal says, "It's hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor." Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she's been the librarian ever since. Then, there's nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he's let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it's funny, too. A real gem. 2000, Candlewick, $15.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 9 to 12. Starred Review. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Betsy Hearne (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 2000 (Vol. 53, No. 10))
My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog.” There you have it: main characters and conflict, all in the first sentence. But there’s a lot more to this book. Opal has a singular voice with a simple, infallibly Southern inflection; her daddy is one of the nicest and quirkiest preachers to grace children’s literature; and Winn-Dixie, named after the grocery store from which Opal rescued him, is an ugly dog with a smile that makes friends and also makes him sneeze, not to mention a pathological fear of thunderstorms. In addition, readers will meet an elderly librarian whose stories inject the small town Florida setting with a past; a “witchy” neighbor who has hung a tree with beer and whiskey bottles, each representing a mistake she’s made in her life; a mentally challenged musician whose street-singing once led him to jail and who now plays for the residents of a pet store, including Gertrude the parrot, whose favorite word is “Dog!” The one person we don’t meet is Opal’s mother, who abandoned her family long ago. It is the pain of her absence that propels Opal into friendships with all the characters whom Winn-Dixie eventually brings together, lessening the loneliness of each. By turns funny and moving, vivid from trailer park to pet store, this will propel readers into a satisfying circle of companionship. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2000, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2000, Candlewick, 182p, $15.99. Grades 4-6.

Kathie Krieger Cerra (The Five Owls, November/December 2000 (Vol. 15, No. 2))
The quick beginning, an essential feature of well-written children's books, carries Because of Winn-Dixie forward quite effectively. The stage is set in the first sentence: "My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes, and I came back with a dog." Ten-year-old Opal then proceeds to tell the funny story of a stray dog found in the produce department of the Winn-Dixie grocery store, where she calls him as if he were her own in order to save him from the pound. Because of Winn-Dixie is indeed a dog story, but it is also the story of a child, lonely yet resourceful, who has just recently moved to Naomi, Florida, with her father. It is the story of a motherless child, who longs for the love and comfort that a mother could provide. It is the story of a character finding her way in the world, a character seemingly tentative, yet as starkly defined as her red hair and the big, ugly, smiling stray dog she takes home, washes, and makes her own. And it is the story of Opal's developing friendships with distinctive, well-drawn characters--old Gloria Dump, who is almost blind; the librarian, Miss Franny Block; shy Otis at the pet store--encounters made possible, one way or another, because of the dog, Winn-Dixie. In twenty-six short chapters, DiCamillo has crafted a fine, economical story told in the authentic voice of a child, using regional language and vivid description in a clear, straightforward way. There is immediacy of feeling in this book, perfectly expressing the secret inner life that every child knows. Because of her resourcefulness, demonstrated in the opening chapter and throughout the book at every turn, Opal develops and grows as a character, in both her inner and her outer life. All of this is accomplished through a story worth telling. Children will enjoy Opal's abiding humor and Winn-Dixie's disarming and endearing ways, and the funny and important things that happen when the two of them get together. 2000, Candlewick, $15.99. Ages 9 to 12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2000)
When Opal, who has just moved to Naomi, Florida, takes in a stray dog, he immediately begins easing her troubles, helping her make friends, who in turn help her come to terms with the fact that her mother abandoned her and probably won't be back. A gentle book about good people coming together to combat loneliness and heartache--with a little canine assistance. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2000, Candlewick, 182pp, $15.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Monica Irwin (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 13, No. 3))
India Opal, known as Opal, is a ten-year-old girl new to her town. Her father is a preacher. Her mother left when Opal was three years old, so Opal and her father live alone together in a trailer in Florida. One day when Opal is at a grocery store, she sees a dog running through the produce section. When the manager decides to call the pound, Opal declares that the dog is hers and promptly names him Winn-Dixie after the grocery store where she first saw him. Opal's father allows her to keep the dog, and he quickly becomes a member of the family. Because Winn-Dixie does not like being alone, he is taken everywhere, even to church. It is because the dog is such a wonderful animal that Opal meets the town librarian, a strange woman who some think is a witch, the manager of a pet store, and several children her own age. Opal stops being lonely. This is a great book that will be valued by all who read it. The dog is delightful, as is the character of Opal. There are many funny episodes, like the mouse chase in the church service. And there are even more moving moments--a party for the manager of the pet store, stories told by the librarian, and others. Every reader will learn to appreciate what they have and will feel a sense of happiness just by reading this simple book. Grades 4 and up. 2000, Candlewick, 182p, $15.99. Ages 9 up.