Eureka!

Like Sisters on the Homefront

Publication Information

Author: Williams-Garcia, Rita

Illustrator:

Title: Like Sisters on the Homefront

Date: 1995

Publisher: Puffin

City: New York

ISBN, paperback:

ISBN, hardback: 0-14-038561-4

Recommended audience:

ABE/ABLE: Yes

ESOL:

Family:

Young Adult: Yes

Picture:

General Information:

Book Type(s): fiction

HSE Descriptor(s): language arts - reading

Summary:

When 14-year-old Gayle gets into "trouble," she and her baby Jose leave New York City to live with family in rural Georgia. At first bored with and distressed about her situation, Gayle eventually makes friends with her cousin Cookie. Through "tellings" by Great, the family matriarch, Gayle learns about her family's past and develops some ideas for her own future. (Coretta Scott King Honor Book)

Teaching Ideas:

If this were a movie, Reading Group members would rate it PG-13; the sensitive issue of abortion is an early part of the story. Nevertheless, this is a compelling book, a very "good read." The disparate family backgrounds of Gayle and Cookie lend themselves to comparison/ contrast discussions or writing, perhaps using matrices or Venn diagrams. Students might be interested in writing the family history (itself a microcosm of African-American history) using Great's "tellings." Ongoing journal entries about Gayle or Cookie would be a good way to track their transformations. Other areas for discussion or writing include intergenerational relationships, family secrets, how (and why and what) parents should teach children about human sexuality, or the dynamics of parent-child relationships. DR-TAs or response activities will work well throughout the text.

Teaching Strategies: