Throughout the 2000s and beyond, DiCamillo has been influencing the course of middle-grade fiction. She achieves standards of quality that are often absent from stories aimed at young readers, building stories that are compelling and complex. At the same time, she is able to write in a way that allows her audience, older elementary children, to fully engage with the material. In her novels, DiCamillo addresses issues common to this age group, such as parent-child relationships, divorce, the emergence of romantic love, and the discovery of independence. DiCamillo’s stories seek to instill confidence and hope in children who feel lost or abandoned. DiCamillo’s debut novel, Because of Winn-Dixie, follows a young girl whose mother is absent but whose life is made better by a dog she meets. Similarly, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures features a girl whose relationship with her mother has been fractured since her parents’ divorce. They begin to heal with the help of a squirrel with superpowers named Ulysses.

Many of DiCamillo’s other stories personify an animal and turn it into a hero, including The Tale of Despereaux, which sees a mouse become a hero to save a princess, and