Fifth-grader Nora is really a genius. It's true, but don't tell anyone. She gets average grades so she can forgo the pressure-cooker gifted program. But she gets one hundred percent fed up over testing and the fuss everyone makes about grades, she bring home a terrible report card just to prove a point.

Ramona meets lots of interesting people in kindergarten class, like Davy whom she keeps trying to kiss and Susan whose springy curls seem to ask to be pulled.

When ten-year-old India Opal Buloni moves to Naomi, Florida, with her preacher father, she doesn't know what to expect, least of all, that she'll adopt Winn-Dixie, a dog she names after the supermarket where they met. Opal is lonely at first, but with such an unusually friendly dog at her side, she makes some unusual friends and discovers she has a whole lot to be thankful for.