Family ties come through as the keynote of this satisfying and
positive sequel to Homecoming, which sees Dicey and her three
younger siblings settled on Grandmother Tillerman's Chesapeake Bay
farm. With Momma in a mental hospital and local rumors that old
Mrs. Tillerman is "Crazy," it's a relief to find Grain a wise and
capable, if sometimes eccentric upbringer. Dicey still worries
about the younger children's school problems, but she new has help
in handling them: Grain visits Sammy's second grade and wins him
points by beating all the boys at marbles; and James, a bright and
bookish ten, studies methods and teaches slow, shy Maybeth, who's
talented in music but failing in school, to read. And, as family
troubles present themselves, Grain brusquely counsels Dicey on the
variously appropriate policies of holding on, reaching out, and
letting go. Eventually the prickly Dicey acknowledges a friend in
Mina, a black girl who recognizes that she and Dicey are the two
eighth-grade brains, and another in Serf, a tenth-grader with a
guitar, who visits for family songfests although Dicey, not ready
for dates, turns down his invitation to a dance. Fat Mr. Lingerie,
Maybeth's music teacher, becomes another family friend, coming
forth with sitting services and money for the undertaker when Dicey
and Grain must travel to the children's dying Momma in Boston. The
sadness of these final scenes is tempered with the satisfaction of
a chapter closed and the knowledge that, as Momma's awkward,
mouse-faced doctor says lamely, "It is better this way." Through
all the hardships, comforts, and passages, Dicey remains the sturdy
presence we met in Homecoming; new she and Gram make a strong,
crusty pair, and the other children come along according to their
observantly individualized courses. A resilient family and a
gratifying journey's end. (Kirkus Reviews)
The second book in Cynthia Voigt's acclaimed Tillerman Series,
about Dicey Tillerman and her family. Fierce, solitary, brave and
clever, Dicey Tillerman is growing up. Having safely brought her
brothers and sister two hundred miles to Gram, their grandmother
(the story of Homecoming), now she is having to adjust to ordinary
life in school and at home. She must deal with grief at the
discovery of her mother's whereabouts and death, endless worrying
about her family, burgeoning adolescence, friendships worth
fighting for, and her all-encompassing desire to build and sail
boats.
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