What a lovely book. Our narrator, India Opal. is the 10-year-old daughter of a preacher. Her mom abandoned the family when Opal was tiny, and her father--whom she calls the Preacher--is withdrawn. To make things harder, the Preacher takes a job in Florida, and Opal has a hard time finding friends in their new town. It's about this time she rescues a stray dog at a Winn-Dixie supermarket . . . and then begins to meet a variety of eccentric adults and kids, each of whom has their own burdens or sorrows. The rest of the story is about learning to look beyond the surface, to accept people as we find them, and to love the people we have while we have them.  I read it to my 9- and 5-year-old grandchildren at the same time, and they both loved it--in fact, I'd recommend it for just about any age.