Homecoming
Cynthia Voigt (1981)
“Four children are abandoned in a parking lot by their mother and walk two hundred miles down the Connecticut coast to find a home — and discover that home is not a place but a choice.”
For Students
Because this is a book about what it means to take care of yourself when no one else will — and about what it means to find people who choose to take care of you. If you have ever felt that the adults in your life do not understand you, or that the systems designed to help you are actually making things worse, Dicey Tillerman will feel like someone who gets it. The novel does not promise that everything will be fine. It promises that you are tougher than you think, and that the right home — the one that fits — is worth the search.
For Teachers
The novel supports discussion of family structures, mental illness, institutional systems, social class, gender roles (Dicey as a non-traditional female protagonist), and the definition of 'home.' It is accessible to middle school readers while offering enough complexity for high school analysis. The journey structure lends itself to map-based and geography-integrated teaching. Pairs well with The Great Gilly Hopkins, Bud Not Buddy, and Bridge to Terabithia. The Tillerman cycle offers scope for extended unit teaching across multiple novels.
Why It Still Matters
In a world where family structures are more varied and more stressed than ever, Homecoming's argument — that home is built, not given, and that belonging requires both finding and being found — is as relevant as it was in 1981. The novel's Tillerman code — judge people by what they do, not what they say; survival is a skill, not a state; love is a verb, not a noun — offers a model of resilience that transcends any specific era.