Because of... {Kate DiCamillo}

I was going to say something like, I wish I had read Kate DiCamillo when I was a child. But then I realized the next moment: her books didn't exist when I was a child! Dear children and children-at-heart of the twenty-first century, to you I hereby highly recommend this remarkable author.

Here's the tale: browsing in the textbook section of the old college bookstore one day, I discovered the required texts for an undergraduate children's lit course. Which, of course, I was not taking. Naturally, I had to buy the books, one of which was DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux. It sat on my bookshelf for three months, patiently awaiting its turn, while I attended to a bossy stream of academic tasks. At last, over thanksgiving break, The Tale of Despereaux found itself packed into my luggage, and on a road trip. It was on the way back from that road trip that I finally gave the book its due read. It was good. Reader, that's as much as I will say. Since then, and because of The Tale of Despereaux, I have gone on to read Newbery Honor Book Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Kate DiCamillo's writing life has had its own series of 'because of's. At her website, she describes her experience with one writing assignment from a expository writing course in college, involving a serendipitous encounter with a busker in a grocery store, and the perceptive grad student who was teaching the course. It was because of that encounter, and the words of that grad student, that her first novel, Because of Winn-Dixie came about. I think it is perfectly befitting, therefore, that Because of Winn-Dixie begins in a grocery store, and also that it is a book very much about a string of 'because of's. 

That, together with the various 'because of's that I've experienced after picking up the tail, I mean tale, is the reason I've titled this post as I have. I've thought about it, and find this to make sense. Life's journey does leave its trail of 'because of's. For some, this sounds like regret, missed opportunities, 'if only's. But for Kate DiCamillo's characters, time and again the tale is that of redemption. 'If only's do not get the last word. Always, there is a because of. Let that be true of life. 

Teaching tip: Kate DiCamillo's teacher at that expository writing class assigned students a 500 word assignment describing something. Anything. Do assign descriptive tasks to your students. But also do what DiCamillo's teacher did: make it clear to students that writing is seeing. Encourage them to spend time and effort observing one subject closely, then to write about it. And when you do try this, let me know how it goes. I'd definitely be interested to know.