Because of Winn-Dixie — A Letter to Educators from Author Kate DiCamillo

Dear Educator,

My mother, Betty DiCamillo, was an elementary school teacher, and I often rode to school with her. This meant that I was the first student to arrive and the last one to leave. My mother loved teaching. She couldn’t wait to get to the classroom each morning, and she hated to leave school at the end of the day. She cared, passionately, about children learning to read. It is an incredible thing, then, for me to be writing you this letter, to know that my book, Because of Winn-Dixie, has been made into such a beautiful, funny, moving movie and that you, as teachers, will be able to share it, discuss it and hopefully delight in it with your students. Opal’s story is about loss and love and friendship and forgiveness and community and hope. In short, it is about life. There is beauty and tenderness and despair in this movie and because of those themes, the film has received a PG rating. It is my grand and outrageous hope that the movie will lead children to the book and that the book will lead them to other books and that because of Winn-Dixie many children will become life-long readers. It’s a lot to hope for, I know: but wouldn’t it be a fabulous thing if that happened? I feel like it would be a tribute to my mother, to teachers and librarians and educators everywhere. Thank you for being part of that possibility.

With warm wishes,

Kate DiCamillo

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