Books to Read: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

I do not believe that I have done a proper review of this book.
So, I quickly skimmed over it, because I've read it twice and that's all I needed to do to remind myself of some of the key things in the plot.

It's about a girl named Opal who gets a pet dog.
. . .
Were you expecting more?

Kate DiCamillo does not write to take you on a wild reading adventure. She writes to let you catch a glimpse into other people's lives, and she shows you that some heroes can be the most ordinary people or things.

Did this book have a plot? Sure. I'm feeling generous. A girl learns how to deal with the perils of a first world life through the companionship of a dog.

Anyway, there are some specific things I would like to talk about now.

• Kate DiCamillo: stop taking away all of the parents. I made a rant about dead or missing parents in books here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/dead-parents-in-books-rant.html I understand that many kids have divorced parents and that they have to go to one parent's house on the weekends and another on the weekday. I understand that some kids do have to live with one of their parents because the other died or left. And I know that a very small percentage of children have to stay with their grandparents or something because both of their parents have died. And there's orphans, too. But there seems to be a trend in Kate DiCamillo's books. The Tiger Rising: both of the protagonists have dead/missing (I forgot, to be quite honest) parents, and I suppose the tiger is an orphan. That doesn't really count, though, because humans are superior and therefore we use other words to describe the relationship with tiger families and oh no I'm travelling into the land of rant . . . In The Magician's Elephant, the main character is basically an orphan. I think he lives with his uncle(?) who is training him to be a soldier. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: It's a china rabbit, so I kind of discussed how it doesn't necessarily make sense to make these connections before I travelled to the land of rant. But it's basically about a china rabbit that loses his beloved guardians quite frequently. And Because of Winn-Dixie: the mom left. TOTALLY DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING REAL SHOCKER KATE.
• I can't be the only one who learned the word "melancholy" from this book.
• Kate DiCamillo does one thing really well: she gives her characters lives. In a lot of fantasy books that I read, it seems like most of the characters didn't exist before I started reading. The author never says anything about their past, you know, besides the fact that their parents died, because that happens in every book. But Kate DiCamillo gives her characters quirks and stories. Miss Franny got War and Peace stolen by a bear. Her great-grandfather invented the Littmus Lozenge, which apparently tastes like an emotion. Amanda Wilkinson's brother died, which made her much more introverted and afraid to get attached to people, I suppose. And all of the other characters, like Otis and Gloria and the Dewberry boys come together in the end and it's beautiful. This book was beautiful.
• The narrator sounds like a kid. I always can respect it when an author does proper narration.
• And dogs are cute, I suppose. (I actually am more of a cat person, because cats are more introverted and I feel like we have some sort of understanding don't judge me.)

Anyway, this book will take you two hours at most to read. That brings me to another point that I really didn't want to knock the author for, but the text is like, 2 inches from the bottom of the page, the book itself is probably about 8 inches, there's massive spacing between the sentences, the text is big, and the book is still only 182 pages long. I'm a bit of a tree hugger, but if the publishers were to make the text smaller, put less spacing between the words, and maybe fit more words onto the page, then the book would be shorter and a lot of paper would be saved. In one respect, it makes the book seem like an easy read and possibly makes it less intimidating for children to pick up the book, so that's all just marketing, but . . . trees, man.

Sorry. That post made no sense. Anyway, read Because of Winn-Dixie. If you have, let's discuss in the comments below. There's no need to be shy. Take advantage of the anonymity of the internet and engage me in conversation.

Book Talks: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"

This is a book about a self absorbed rabbit who has a perfect life. Then the reality of the cold harsh world comes crashing down on him in the most unpleasant way.
It has a pretty simply and almost repetitive plot like most of Kate DiCamillo's books, but I enjoyed it.
For one thing, it's really short. I finished it in under two hours. It has interesting illustrations and the writing was almost poetic at times. So, if you're looking to add another easy book to your 2014 reading challenge, I recommend this.

Now, let's talk about this book.
<SPOILERS> Well, this is . . .a book.
Some nice things I can say about the book is:
-The characters were interesting and all had their own stories, which is just a key element in any book by Kate DiCamillo.
-The illustrations helped to visualize what was going on.
-The writing was pretty.
-It carries a decent message. I'm sure other people might have found different messages from this book, but I got "Things can always be worse, so you better be thankful for what you have."

Some not-so-nice things I can say about this book:
-It was repetitive. Edward gets attached to someone. A terrible thing happens and Edward loses that person. Edward gets attached to someone else, even though he swears he won't. Edward loses that person. Then, the cycle repeats.
-Some of the characters were really unreasonable. The restaurant guy who broke Edward's face was unreasonable. A real restaurant owner (or manager, a small detail I'm unsure of) would want to keep a decent image and maybe not make a big scene about crushing the dreams of children.
-Some other things that happened in the book happened purely for the sake of the plot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but not many storms are strong enough to pick things up from the ocean floor. And why would anyone be fishing during a storm that strong anyway? And why would a perfectly sane woman (Nellie's daughter) talk to an inanimate object and conveniently explain what she's doing? 
-Predictable plot twist at the end, but I also think that's the only way the story could end and I'd be satisfied.
But still.

Some other things I thought while reading the book:
-That hobo guy is definitely on something. No sane man would keep a toy rabbit for seven years and make clothes for it, unless he were trying to make his daughter happy.
-Why are all dolls such jerks? Sure, Edward went on a miraculous journey and discovered that he's not the center of the universe and has become kind of jaded in the process, but what are all of the other doll's excuses?
-Why does Edward's gender keep changing? First he's a fancy guy, then he's a puuurddy girl, then he's a tomboy, then he's just treated as a genderless scarecrow, then I lost track of what they called him after that.

Overall, I liked the book. I didn't love it, and I didn't want to throw it across the room out of rage. What did you think? <SPOILERS>

Author of the Day: Kate DiCamillo

Author of the Day is a new segment that I have that has mini book reviews about one certain author, basically.
Kate DiCamillo is an author that I have a love/hate relationship with. I don't dislike her books, but I don't like them so much either.
Here are some books that I read by her:

Because of Winn-Dixie

This book is about a girl named Opal who finds a dog . . . and makes friends . . . and has emotions . . . that's it.

You may have heard of this book. They made a movie out of it, in fact. Now, I don't think that most of Kate DiCamillo's books are worthy of being made into movies, but this book is about a dog, so Hollywood just said "Come on, guys. People spend their money on book to movie adaptations all of the time. And this one has dogs. Dogs." I digress.
I feel like this is one of Kate DiCamillo's best books because it has her usual quirky and interesting characters, but I feel like she gave each of them more complex stories (like the girl who always looks pouty) and it made them seem like real people, which I really like in all of her writing.
But there wasn't much of a plot. It was like "I made a sandwich. My mom used to eat sandwiches. *emotional turmoil* Okay. I'll do something lighthearted and endearing now." For about 200 pages. So . . . yeah.


The Tiger Rising

This book is about a boy named Robert who finds a tiger . . .  and meets a girl . . . and has emotions  . . . that's it.

This was the second book I read by Kate DiCamillo and I liked it. Sure, it had many similarities to Because of Winn-Dixie.
-It's about a kid who moves somewhere new with their single parent because their other parent died.
-Animals bring the characters happiness and an escape from their problems.
-Southern accents.
-Quirky characters with weird names.
-Kids who like to make strange metaphors that I suppose make sense somewhat
But the ending is a little different.
Overall, I liked this book. I read it in maybe two hours, probably less, but I don't feel like the length of a book measures how much you'll enjoy reading it.



The Magician's Elephant

This book is about a magician who accidently summons an elephant and cripples someone. Then this boy believes that the elephant can lead him towards his long lost sister because some shady fortune teller told him so. Fantastic.

I disliked this book. It just dragged on and on and on and on and I honestly didn't care what happened to the characters. I feel like it's one of those books that teaches you to just simply believe and it will be so. That's not quite how it works. The characters were quirky, but it was becoming a little old. I forget what happened to the elephant in the end, so I don't know what on earth the magician did with it. And you know what? I don't care.
The book was just screaming at me "The idea behind me is a little half-baked, but if I drag it out and add illustrations you might not notice . . ."
A lot of characters were introduced into the story, and I had a nice moment at the end when I realized "Ahhh . . . that makes sense." But up until then, the writing just felt weird and I didn't like it so much.



The Miraculous Journey or Edward Tulane

I haven't finished this book yet because I obtained it yesterday.
*Funny story, my favorite doll was once thrown off of a boat, too. So if it weren't for the nice people rafting nearby who retrieved my doll, she could have gone on an adventure.
Basically, this story is about a self-absorbed china rabbit who falls into the ocean and goes on an adventure.

I don't mind this book so far. It's not the most amazing book, but it doesn't suck so far. I think I prefer it over a few of Kate DiCamillo's other books because it crosses over into more of a fantasy story than her usual realistic fiction. I'm enjoying it so far, minus the creepy grandmother and the parents who are sheltering their seemingly bratty daughter. I'll find out soon enough.

All in all, I've read a lot of Kate DiCamillo's books and I can't really tell you for sure if I'm a fan of any of them. Of all of these, I would recommend Because of Winn-Dixie, because it's a quick and easy read and you might enjoy it. Kate DiCamillo is a decent author, so be sure to read at least one of her books.

Book Talks: The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"
This book. This. Freaking. Book.
This.
Freaking.
Book.
When a friend was telling me about this book, I was under the impression that it would be good.

I'm sorry. I don't quite understand how I feel about this book, so I'm just kind of typing aimlessly, trying to gather my opinion.
It's about a boy, I didn't bother to remember his name, who is going through a lot of inner turmoil, and then POOF. A lion appears. Then, he meets a girl who is also going through a lot of inner turmoil, and he's like, "I have a lion!" That's the gist of it.
I'm not even joking.
Anyway, this book is really short and I feel like it had no plot. I read it in just a little over an hour, and felt like it didn't have much of a resolution or a story or anything. So, let's talk about the book.
<SPOILER ALERT! I'M BASICALLY GOING TO REVEAL EVERYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT, LEAVE!>  Okay, Rob finds a tiger in the woods. Rob meets Sistine. Sistine hates him immediately and supplies no good reason why. Rob shows Sistine the tiger and he fantasizes about the tiger. Sistine says "I think we should let this extremely lethal tiger go, just because." And Rob says, "Okay." Then, the lion gets shot and Rob has an emotional breakdown. Duh. There are beware of dog signs. LIONS ARE NO SAFER. Aside from that, I like that all of Kate DiCamillo's characters have interesting quirks and hobbies and even names. Take Sistine, for example. She's a sassy girl from the north who wears dresses but doesn't like to and doesn't take nothin' from no one and gets in tons of fights at school. She is a character. Anyway, what was the plot? Rob misses his mom and shoves stuff inside of a suitcase. Is that really a plot?
I don't think I dislike this book, but it was . . . unique, for sure. <SPOILER>