Celebrate Kate DiCamillo's birthday today.
Born on March 25, 1964, Kate DiCamillo is the award-winning author of Because of Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, her first novel, was a 2001 Newbery Honor book and was released on film in 2005. Her novel The Tale of Despereaux won the Newbery Medal in 2004 and Flora & Ulysses won the Newbery Medal in 2014. Additional works include The Tiger Rising, Mercy Watson to the Rescue, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
DiCamillo often writes about animals, such as the title characters in Mercy Watson to the Rescue, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Tiger Rising. Have your students examine the characters in these stories, looking for character traits, examples of personification, and similarities and differences. Then challenge students to write original short stories featuring animals as central characters.
- Have students visit the interactive Plot Diagram to plan their stories.
- Then have students visit the interactive Story Mapping tool and select the character map option to develop their stories' central characters.
- Ask students to print out their plot diagrams and character maps and use them to write their stories. When students have finished writing, have them share their work by reading their stories aloud or posting them in the classroom.
Kidsreads offers this brief biography of Kate DiCamillo. An author interview and links to book information are also included.
DiCamillo's website provides book and author information, upcoming public appearance dates, and more.
Scholastic offers this biography of DiCamillo, as well as links to an annotated book list and an interview transcript.
This resource from Reading Rockets highlights DiCamillo talking about her well-known texts as well as sharing about her early rejections.