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    Homecoming
    Homecoming
    Homecoming
    Audiobook14 hours

    Homecoming

    Written by Cynthia Voigt

    Narrated by Barbara Caruso

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The iconic start to the timeless, Newbery-winning series from Cynthia Voigt is repackaged with a fresh new look.

    “It’s still true.” That’s the first thing James Tillerman says to his older sister, Dicey, every morning. It’s still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillermans in a mall parking lot somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It’s still true that they have to find their own way to Great-aunt
    Cilla’s house in Bridgeport. It’s still true that they need to spend as little as possible on food and seek shelter anywhere that is out of view of the authorities. It’s still true that the only way they can hope to all stay together is to just keep moving forward.

    Deep down, Dicey hopes they can find someone to trust, someone who will take them in and love them. But she’s afraid it’s just too much to hope for. …

    A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)
    National Book Award Finalist
    ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 10, 2008
    ISBN9781436188890
    Author

    Cynthia Voigt

    Cynthia Voigt is the Newbery Medal- and Newbery Honor–winning author of more than twenty books, including Dicey’s Song and A Solitary Blue. She is also the author of Little Bird, illustrated by Newbery Medal–winning author Lynne Rae Perkins. She lives in Maine. 

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    Reviews for Homecoming

    4.5/5

    32 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming. NY: Atheneum. 1981.Never before have I read a classic children’s story that felt so fresh and relatable as this one. Cynthia Voigt has crafted a novel with such an exciting plot, empathetic characters, and universal themes that I couldn’t put it down. In this story, the four Tillerman children lose their mother when she abandons them in a mall parking lot. The oldest, Dicey, realizes that their mother is profoundly mentally ill, and decides to take charge of her younger siblings and march them to Aunt Cilla’s house, hundreds of miles away in Connecticut. On their journey, they encounter many characters, some helpful, some frightening, and they learn some hard lessons about resilience and perseverance.This is a typical quest story, only the children aren’t seeking treasure or glory, but simply a place of belonging. Every child can relate to that need to belong and feel at home, even if it isn’t on the same epic scale as the Tillermans. Kids will also enjoy reading this book for the tightly crafted plot, to see if the Tillermans survive their journey, and to find out what they will gain at the end.Even though this novel was written in 1981, its theme that growing up is like being on a quest will resound for today’s readers.For ages 10 and up.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I really had a hard time with this book. It was slow moving to me and my attention kept wandering. I also had a hard time accepting that these very young children were going cross country on foot with no money and even though they were hungry most of the time they never got into trouble or got caught or with the exception of the one farmer never really had any bad incidents. In other words it didn't feel real. Makes me shudder to think that there would be young people out there who would read this and go the route of the Tillerman children instead of going to a church or some other establishment for help. In todays world children that young doing what this book lays out ..they would food for the wolves.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I wonder how many children living in the United States today could do what Dicey and her family does? Both in terms of the children knowing how to survive on their own, and also being able to avoid the attention of adults as they traveled. I really liked how Dicey was torn between wanting to care for her family and also feeling burdened. I liked that she wasn't satisfied to just "make do" but kept searching until she found the right place for herself and her brothers and sisters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      The first in the Tillerman cycle. Good writing and enjoyable story. I was haunted by the thought that I had read it before and maybe I have. 7/5/12

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I have such a soft spot for this book. It stands out as my favorite from the early teen years. Can't say why, as I truly can't relate to 4 kids who are all on their own, but I just love it.
    • 5/5
      This was, I believe, the second novel Cynthia Voigt wrote, and the first she had published. But I could have those reversed. Especially for a first novel, it's an amazing accomplishment. You meet the Tillerman family, who will be with you in six other books, and for the rest of your life in other ways. Voigt's characters are so real that you expect to look up and see them sitting in the room with you when you put the book down -- which is frequently very hard to do, and as soon as you're done, you want to move on to the next one. This first novel in the Tillerman saga introduces you to four children, Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, who are abandoned by their (schizophrenic?) mother en route to their great-aunt's house. This happens in the first chapter; the rest of the novel follows their journey (mostly on foot) first to the aunt's house and then from Connecticut to Maryland, where they wind up with a very real, very spirited, very conflicted grandmother. Kid-lit like this is definitely not just for kids.
    • 4/5
      I've read Dicey's Song and enjoyed already, and when I spotted this book at the store, I grabbed it, as it's the prequel. Dicey's mom leaves the four kids in the car in a parking lot in CT, and disappears. Dicey has to get her two brothers and her sister to a new home, so they set off walking. She's 13, can read a map, and is determined to take care of her siblings. It's the sort of book that if I read it as a kid, I probably wouldn't have day dreamed so much about running away, it's hard to keep yourself fed and sheltered and out of trouble if you're not an adult. The kids encounter some helping hands along the way, and some adults that want to bend them to their own ends, but all along the spectre of their mom's behaviour haunts them. It was neat getting the details of their journey, the family is made up of compelling characters, I enjoyed reading this part of their story, too.
    • 4/5
      A heart-warming story about 4 abandoned children bonding together during their search for a new home.
    • 5/5
      I had to read this book for class and this recording made it much easier. The narrator is very easy to listen to. I will be listening to Dicey's Song next
    • 5/5
      Homecoming by Cynthia Voight is the story of four children on their own. The oldest, Dicey Tillerman who is still young enough to pass as a boy when she needs to, leads her three siblings on a cross country journey in search of a home. They must face this journey alone after their unstable mother abandons them in a car outside of a large shopping mall while on the way to the home of their great aunt. She never returns. It's clear that Dicey has been covering for their mother for some time. She immediately takes charge of the situation, keeping the younger children in line, dividing tasks between herself and her brother James who's just a year or so younger than she is. Dicey hopes that their mother will return as soon as this latest spell is over, but she also fears that the police will find them and separate them. She wants her mother back, but even more than that she wants to keep her family together. So when it begins to get dark and her mother still has not returned, she decides to abandon the car and walk to their great aunt's house, though it's a trip that will take several weeks and they have just over ten dollars between them.What follows is a terrific survival story. Ms. Voight knows what she is talking about here. The details of how the children survive, earn money, get food, find shelter and eventually find their great aunt's home are completely realistic. (If you had to run away from home with only a few dollars to you name in 1981 when the book was written this book could have been your field guide.) There are no flights of fancy here, no unexplained or surprise rescuers, no helpful coincidences that appear out of no where to save the day. Dicey is simply too determined to fail. Her siblings recognize this and stick to her side through thick and thin. She does not disappoint them.Homecoming is more or less officially a young adult novel, but it should be seen as a young adult novel in the same sense that To Kill a Mockingbird is a young adult novel. Put a more sophisticated cover on it, take off the references to the Newberry Medal and you have a novel about children written for all audiences. Ms. Voight never talks down to her audience, never makes things easy for them, but she does write a compelling tale. All of the characters, even the minor ones, are as richly drawn as any you'll find in an "adult" novel. Motivations are complicated here. People try to do the right thing by each other only to find both the giver and the receiver of charity are too complicated to make even the most generous act go smoothly. It's not that no good deed goes unpunished, but no good deed is easy to swallow.One thing that sets Homecoming above other novels like this is that once the children find a home, their great aunt's house, they also find that it is not really what they were looking for. Most writers would end their stories at the doorstep of their destination with a happy and satisfying reunion. Ms. Voight could have done so and still had an excellent novel. Instead, Dicey, her sister and her brothers find they have such a difficult time fitting in that they must consider taking to the road again, this time to look for the grandmother they never knew, one whom their mother rarely had a kind word for.
    • 4/5
      This story of the Tillerman kids, abandoned by their mother in a carpark, was gripping from the first page. Thirteen-year-old Dicey immediately sees that they have to avoid notice, so the four siblings won't be taken into custody and split up. She has a few dollars, an address, and a family to hold together, until they can find their mother again.The sibling's trip is exciting, and enough to keep the pages turning rapidly - by the time they reach Great Aunt Cilla's house, I really cared about each character so much that the moments of their lives were more engrossing than the action.But things continued to be hair raising after they reach Cilla's - it was great to read something as evenly divided between action and mystery.I was often reminded of the V.C. Andrews books I read a long time ago - just the determination of the family to stay together, not the incesty bits. And that family gothic staple of madness running in a family, and the family trying and failing to outrun it. I will be eagerly reading my way through the rest of the books in this series.I'd give this to readers who like gritty family stories, urban adventure stories, stories about runaways, and to any lingering VC Andrews fans, as an example of a well written and intelligent family gothic.
    • 5/5
      Best book I've read so far this year (I know: February 1 means that's not saying a lot, but I bet it's still in the top five come December 31). This young-adult book is the first in Voigt's Tillerman Cycle, and it follows the Tillerman children's journey from Connecticut to Maryland. When their mother disappears, leaving thirteen-year-old Dicey, ten-year-old James, nine-year-old MayBeth, and six-year-old Sammy alone in the family car, the Tillermans must decide what to do. Dicey takes charge of the family and leads them first to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she knows an aunt lives, and then, when the aunt makes noises about not being able to keep all four kids, on to Crisfield, Maryland, and an unknown grandmother . This journey is made mostly on foot, and the book chronicles the ins-and-outs of life on the road for four children with almost no money. They meet quite a few people along the way--mostly kind and helpful strangers--but the focus is always on the family and what they learn about themselves, each other, and life. As most of Voigt's books do, Homecoming makes the details of everyday chores fascinating and provides character studies that would rival those in adult literary fiction. Never sappy or sentimental and serious without ever being depressing. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      The writing was beautiful, with descriptions i could see in my mind! The narrator was wonderful also. What a beautiful story ?
    • 4/5
      "Homecoming" was my favourite book in my early teens. Diecy and her siblings are abandoned by her mother in a car. She leaves her home to somewhere far where her grandmother stays. The story tells how they survive through their journey, almost penniless. It was very appealing to me when I read it 6 years ago, perhaps stories of family relationships are always very heartwarming.
    • 5/5
      13-year-old Dicey and her three siblings are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in the parking lot of a mall in Connecticut. It's the middle of summer and they only have $14. Since they were all originally on their way to stay with a "rich" aunt in Bridgeport, CT, Dicey decides to continue on foot. Unfortunately, They are miles away from their destination. When they finally arrive in Bridgeport, the aunt has died and they are left in the care of a rather odd cousin. The journey doesn't end there. A story of survival and perserverance in the face of adversity.
    • 5/5
      The book is great and I've read it several times. The reading is excellent. I've never understood why books about teenagers are seen as only for teenage readers but books about say old people are seen as suitable for anyone. This book is for people of any age. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Written in first person, Dicey and her three siblings are abandoned by their mother. Dicey, who is 14years old, leads the children to a cousins home where she fears they will be separated.When this does not work out, Dicey then leads her siblings on another journey to find their grandmother and ultimately their home.
    • 5/5
      an awsome adventure of kids lost but found there way to their aunts house.
    • 3/5
      307/402 pages read, The book is about four kids who were left behind with no one watching after them. They go looking for releatives to live with, any way for them to just settle down. The main character is Dicey, who is the oldest sister of the four kids who is trying to some what take the place of their mom since she can no loner be around. She is a real leader for her age, she seems nice and caring but she can be tough when she needs to be to stick up for her family. She is a hard worker and someone who has a good head on their shoulders and knows what she is trying to do. There were alot of times when dicey made decisions that i would have done as well. Also when she watchs out for her family, I know that I would do the same if it were me and my sister. The one thing that i didnt like most about this book was that it started to get boring which is why I lost interest and ended up not finishing the book. I would recomend this book to someone who enjoys reading the fews of a early teen. Not like what they think about clothes or girls/boys but how the act in a time of crisis.
    • 5/5
      I thought this book was really good, but depressing at the same time. I love this author and hope to read the rest of this series.
    • 4/5
      4 children abandoned by mother travel to a relative with $9.00 and a few clothes. Traveling across country with only an address. Big sister, Dicy, keeps the family together by becoming a mother figure. Good mystery as how to get to Conn. Kept me rivoted on what would happen next.Fictional story of four children who lived in abandoned by Mom. They had an address in Bridgeport, Conn. for an Aunt they'd never met. Great mystery as to how they'd get to Bridgeport from Providencetown.
    • 2/5
      First of the Tillerman series, this is the story of eldest child Dicey and her siblings James, Maybelle and Sammy. The book opens with their mother leaving them in a mall parking lot, and we follow them as they set out to figure out where their mother is. They encounter many challenges along the way, and also meet several meet family they never knew.