Susan’s Almanac Project for March 25, 2019

It’s the birthday of Kate DiCamillo (b. 1964), two of whose 25 children’s books have won Newbery Medals and who has been writing beautifully about surviving loss and loneliness from her very first novel, Because of Winn-Dixie (2000).

DiCamillo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the family moved to Clermont, Florida, when DiCamillo was five due to her chronic pneumonia. (That’s a thing? Chronic pneumonia? Another thing to worry about.) DiCamillo’s father, an orthodontist, was supposed to join the family there but instead left, so DiCamillo writes from loss out of personal experience. Growing up, DiCamillo originally wanted to be a veterinarian, not a writer, until a horrific experience in a vet’s office that involved witnessing a dog’s eye falling out.

DiCamillo studied at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and in 1994 moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the state’s worst winter on record. She didn’t own so much as a jacket; she didn’t even own socks. Because Florida. Terribly homesick for Florida and for dogs—this was the first time in her life she’d had to live without a dog—she made up a dog named Winn-Dixie. The novel tells the story of Opal, a motherless, homesick girl in a new town who meets a wonderful smelly mutt. The book became a New York Times bestseller and a Newbery Honor book.

DiCamillo’s second novel, Tiger Rising (2001), was also about the loss of a parent as well as the discovery of a caged tiger. Her third, The Tale of Despereaux: Being the story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread (2003) won her her first Newbery; the second was won by Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2013). DiCamillo’s most recent novel is Louisiana’s Way Home (2018), which tells the story of orphaned Louisiana Elefante and her Granny; Louisiana is a character who first appeared in the novel Raymie Nightingale (2016).

DiCamillo is single and has no children but an amazing ability to relate to them, as stated by fellow author Julie Schumacher: “She has a sort of child-like frankness when she talks to them… she’ll also connect to them one-on-one in a way that I think many other writers of children’s lit who never had children were able to do as well, going back to C.S. Lewis.”

DiCamillo describes herself as short and loud, and if you go to her website you will see that she is cute as a button. (My apologies, but the cliché applies.) Her current dog is named Ramona, after Beverly Cleary’s wonderful creation, Ramona Quimby. (Cleary, by the way, is currently 102.)

Have a brilliantly bright, cold Monday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.