At YALLFEST in Charleston last Friday, at a signing with Blue Bicycle Bookshop, a boy came through the line with his mother and handed me a battered paperback copy of Because of Winn-Dixie.
Mother (to the child): Did you want to tell her something, honey?
Boy shakes his head.
Me: You don’t have to say anything; it’s fine.
Mother: Go on and tell her. You wanted to tell her.
Boy looks down at his feet.
Mother: Honey. Don’t you want to say it?
The boy looks up at me and shouts: I read that book 17 times!
Me: 17 times? Really? Why?
Boy (looks down at his feet again): Because of the dog and also because of my heart.
His heart.
My heart.
Thank you.

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