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Welcome to Kids Chapter Check-Ins, a space where we pause, think, talk, and write about great books together. Books are better together. So grab your book and let's check in. Hey readers, welcome back. Today we're checking in on Because of Wendixie by Kate DiCamillo. This is episode 5 of our Because of Wendixie series. Before we begin, make sure that you've read chapters 18 through 22. If not, you can pause the episode, read those chapters, and come right back. It might be helpful to have your book and some paper handy for this episode. If you're following along with your companion pack, now is a great time to grab that as well. Take a moment to gather your materials if you need to. Ready? Let's check in. In chapters 18 through 22, Opal learns more about the people around her and about the sadness that some of them carry. Miss Franny tells Opal about her great-grandfather, Litmus W. Block, who experienced terrible loss during the Civil War. When he returned home, he decided that he wanted to create something that tasted both sweet and sad at the same time. And that's how the litmus lozenge was created. When Opal shares the litmus lozenges with the people in her life, she notices that the candy seems to remind each person of a different kind of sadness. Opal also decides that she wants to bring all the people she's met together. So with Gloria's help, she begins to plan a party and invites all of her new friends. Opal's life in Naomi is starting to look very different from when we first met her. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In today's reading, we hear the word melancholy. Melancholy is an adjective that means feeling a quiet, thoughtful kind of sadness. It isn't always a kind of sadness that makes you burst into tears. Sometimes melancholy is a little bit of a softer feeling, like when something makes you feel sad or thoughtful, or maybe even a little bit lonely. For example, imagine that you find an old photograph of a friend who moved far away. You might smile because the picture reminds you of a happy memory, but you also might feel a little bit of sadness because you miss that person. That feeling could be described as melancholy. And that's a pretty important word in these chapters because of the litmus lozenge. Let's take a moment to check your understanding. You'll hear three questions about the word melancholy. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. Are you ready? If an old song reminds you of someone you miss and makes you feel a little sad, could you feel melancholy? If you're jumping up and down because you just want a huge prize, are you probably feeling melancholy? Could a happy memory sometimes make you feel melancholy if it reminds you of something or someone that you miss? If you said yes, no, yes, great thinking. It's time for our reading focus. Today we're going to think about character change. Characters don't always stay exactly the same from the beginning to the end of a story. The things that happen to them, the problems they're facing, the people they're meeting, and the lessons they're learning all cause them to change over time. Good readers pay attention to these changes. One way that we can notice character change is by asking ourselves, what was this character like before? And what is this character like now? Then we can ask one really important question. What caused that change? Let's think about Opal. At the beginning of the story, Opal had just moved to Naomi, Florida. She didn't have many friends, she missed her mom, and she was feeling really lonely. But think about Opal now. She has so many friends. She knows Miss Franny, she knows Gloria, she works with Otis, she knows Sweetie Pie, and now she's even planning a party to bring all of these new friends together. That's a pretty big change. Character change doesn't mean that everything about a character changes. So some parts of Opal have stayed the same, but other parts have grown and changed because of what she's experienced. So now for that biggest question. Why has Opal changed? Well, think about the people she's met. Think about Win Dixie. Think about the conversations she's had. And think about what she's learned about her mom and all of the other people's lives. Characters don't usually just change for no reason. Usually there's events and relationships in the story that are helping to shape them into who they're becoming. If you'd like, take a moment to look back over at these chapters again. Is there another character that you've noticed is changing from the beginning of the story until now? Can you identify what they were like in the beginning compared to what they're like now? And can you identify what caused them to change? You can jot down your thinking or share it out with someone nearby. It's your turn to jump into the story. Grab a piece of paper if you can, or find a thinking partner. In these chapters, we learn about that very unusual candy, the litmus lozenge. The litmus lozenge tastes sweet, but it also tastes a little bit sad. Today, you are going to become a candy maker. Your challenge is to invent a candy that's inspired by a feeling or a memory. So first, you'll need to decide what feeling you want your candy to represent. Maybe you create a candy that tastes like excitement or bravery or friendship or nervousness or comfort. Or maybe you choose a completely different feeling. Then you'll want to give your candy a name. You'll want to decide what does this candy look like? What's it going to taste like? And here's the most important part. Why does that flavor match the feeling you chose? So maybe you make a candy like Bravery Bites, and it might start out sour because doing something brave can feel kind of scary at first. But then it turns sweet because after you've done that scary thing, you've realized that you did it. Or maybe you make something called friendship fizz and it tastes like two totally different flavors that somehow work perfectly together. You can design the wrapper for your candy, you can draw what the candy will look like, you could write an advertisement for it, or you could simply just describe your creation. Pause the podcast here and get creative. We've been talking about how people can change because of the things that they experience. So here's today's question. Do you think that going through something sad or difficult can help a person to grow? Why? You can think about the characters and because of Wendixie. Several of them have experienced things that made them sad. But those experiences are also part of who they are now. So what do you think? Can difficult experiences teach us something? Think about that answer in your head or talk it out with someone nearby. Before we end today's check-in, here's something to think about as you keep reading. Opal is bringing many of the people she's met together for a party. What do you predict might happen when all of these different characters are in the same place at the same time? Will everything go according to plan? Will something unexpected happen? Make your prediction and keep it in mind as you read these final chapters. Thanks for checking in with me today. I'll see you back here soon for episode six, where we check in on chapters 23 through 26 and finish because of Windixie. That's it for today's chapter check-in. If you'd like additional support, check out the link to our companion packs in the show notes below. If you're enjoying kids chapter check-ins, make sure to follow and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. New chapter check-ins are released weekly. I'll see you back here soon. Until then, keep reading, keep thinking, and be sure to share this episode with a friend because books are better together.