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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 D. Camillo. This is episode 6, the final episode of our Because of Wendixie series. Before we get started, make sure that you've read chapters 23 through 26 and finished the entire novel. 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 23 through 26, Opal and Gloria's party finally begins. All the different people that Opal has met have come together at Gloria's house. But when a thunderstorm rolls in, Opal realizes that Wendyxie is missing. Knowing how terrified Wendixie is of thunderstorms, Opal and the preacher go out to search for him in the storm. While they're searching, Opal finally lets out some of those feelings she's been carrying around about her mom. She and the preacher have a really important conversation, and Opal begins to understand that even though her mom left, she still has so many people in her life who love and care about her. When Opal and the preacher finally make their way back to Gloria's house, they discover that Win Dixie was safe there all along. By the end of the story, Opal is realizing just how much her life has changed since the day that she met Win Dixie at the grocery store. Let's pause for a vocabulary check-in. In today's reading, we hear a form of the word teeter. Miss Franny is described as being teetery in her high heels. Teeter is a verb that means to move or stand in an unsteady way, like you might tip or fall over. Whenever I think of the word teeter, I imagine a baby who's just learning how to walk. Think about that baby in your mind. I bet you can picture that in your mind. The baby who stands up, maybe lets go of someone's hand, and then wobbles and falls over. That baby is teetering as they're learning to walk. You can also think about this as imagining that you're trying to balance on one foot and you start to wobble from side to side. Since you're an experienced walker at your age, you don't teeter when you're walking, but you might teeter if you try and balance on one foot. You could also think of a really tall stack of books that starts to rock back and forth. That stack might start to teeter before it falls over. Let's take a moment to check your understanding. You'll hear three questions about the word teeter. Listen to each one and answer yes or no. You can answer out loud or in your head. Are you ready? If you're trying to balance on one foot and you start to wobble, are you teetering? If you're standing firmly with both feet on the ground, are you teetering? If you're building a tall tower of Legos and it suddenly starts to rock back and forth and looks like it might fall over completely, is your tower teetering? If you said yes, no, yes, great thinking. It's time for our final reading focus for Because of Wendyxie. Today we're going to think about theme. Theme is the bigger message or lesson that the author wants readers to think about. And oh my goodness, this story is jam-packed with so many powerful themes. In nearly every episode summary and every chapter, there was something that we as readers could take away and learn. As we're thinking about identifying theme, there is something important that I want you to know. A theme is usually not one word. This is a big misconception. Lots of people think when they find one word, they found the theme. And the truth is, when you find that one word, you're on your way to finding the theme. So think about words like friendship. Friendship is a topic. Family is a topic. Loneliness is a topic. If you're ever feeling stuck on theme, starting with one word is a great start. But then I challenge you to ask yourself this magic question. Ask yourself, what about that word or that topic is the author trying to teach me? Because a theme tells us something about that topic. For example, we could start with the word friendship as our topic, but then we need to use the magic question to come up with what the author wants us to know about that topic. So our theme could be friendship can grow when we take the time to really get to know someone. That's really what the author wants us to know about friendship. So, how do readers figure out the theme of a story? Well, we need to look across the whole book. That's why we typically focus on theme together in our final episode if you've listened to other novel series. Because we have to think about the entire story from beginning to end. An author will usually sprinkle in little clues about the theme in all the different chapters of the story. So we think about things like what problems did the characters face in this story? Or how did the characters change from the beginning to the end? What lessons did the characters learn? And what are the ideas that keep showing up again and again? So let's think about our story because of Wendixie. We've seen lots of ideas that get repeated throughout this story. We've seen so many ideas about friendship and loneliness and family and forgiveness and loss and even that sense of belonging. These are all topics that the author has sprinkled throughout the story. But what is our author, Kate DeCamillo, saying about these topics? What does she want us to take away after we finish the book? Well, let's think about everything that happened to Opal. Think about where she was at the beginning of the story. Think about all those characters that she met throughout her time in Naomi, Florida. Think about what she learned about her mom and the preacher and Gloria, Otis, Miss Franny, Amanda, even herself. What do you think is one important message from Because of Wendixie? You can go back to that list that I shared a few moments ago, but you also may come up with your own topics. I shared words like belonging, loss, forgiveness, family, loneliness, and friendship. What do you think is one important message, maybe from one of those topics, from our story because of Wendixie? As you're thinking this through, remember this one really important detail. There is not always just one correct theme. You could be sitting in a room of five people right now, and all of those people could come up with a different theme. Different readers are going to connect to different things in the story and they're going to take away different messages. So the important thing is not wanting to make your theme absolutely perfect or correct. The important thing is to be able to support your theme with evidence from the story. If you can do that, you have a good theme. Grab a piece of paper if you can, or find a thinking partner. Over the course of the story, we have watched Opal change. She's made new friends, she's learned more about her mom. She's even gotten closer to the preacher. She's learned that people can carry happiness and sadness at the same time. And of course, she's had Wendixie beside her through it all. So today I want you to write a letter to Opal. Imagine you could send Opal a letter after that final chapter. What would you tell her? You might tell her something that you've noticed about how she's changed. Or you might remind her of something that she's learned. You might want to give her some advice for the future. Or you could even tell her about a lesson that you have learned from listening to her story. Maybe you have a question you really want to ask her. Your letter can be serious, it can be funny, it can be thoughtful, or it can be a little bit of a mix of everything. Write as if Opal is really going to open it and read it. Pause your podcast here and get creative. And since this is our final episode, let's end with a would you rather? Here's your choice. Would you rather have Wendixie as your dog or have Opal as your best friend? Ooh, that's a tough one. Would you rather have Windixie as your dog or have Opal as your best friend? If you chose Wendixie, you get a lovable dog who smiles, makes friends everywhere he goes, and might cause just a little bit of trouble. And if you chose Opal, you'd get a friend who's caring, curious, and pretty good at bringing people together. So which one are you choosing? And why? Make your choice and defend it. Think about your answer in your head or talk it out with someone nearby. Before we end our final check-in, I have one last question for you. We have spent six episodes thinking, talking, creating, and reading our way through because of Wendyxie. So take a moment and think about this. What is one idea, one lesson, or one moment from our story that you really want to remember? It could be something that Opal has learned, it could be something that another character has said, or maybe it's just a moment that made you laugh. Maybe it's an idea from the story that made you think differently about friendship or family or the people around you. Whatever you chose, take a moment and tuck it away in your brain. Because that is one of the best parts about reading. Sometimes, even after we close a book, a little piece of that story stays with us. Thank you so much for checking in with me throughout Because of Wendixie. I hope Opal, Wendixie, and all of their friends gave you plenty of things to read about, think about, and talk about. Keep reading, keep thinking, and keep talking about books, because books are better together. I will see you at our next check-in. 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.