Home means a lot more to you when you’ve spent time without one. If you haven’t read Homecoming, the first book in the Tillerman Cycle, here’s what happens: Momma drives her old car to a mall in Connecticut, gets out, leaves the kids waiting, and never comes back. We won’t ruin it for you, but Gram’s not the first relative the Tillerman tykes try to move in with. So when Gram adopts them and gives them a home, it’s a huge deal for the kiddos. Going back to school, taking piano lessons, having a real Thanksgiving dinner, getting new clothes—these are things most kids in America take for granted, but for Dicey's Song just having a roof over their heads is a wonder.
Questions About Home
- How are home and family connected for the Tillerman children? In what ways is a family a home in and of itself?
- Why do the Tillermans choose to include Mr. Lingerle in their first Thanksgiving dinner as a family, which, for the kids, is their first Thanksgiving dinner ever?
- What do Gram and Dicey do to make their home seem more like a home for the younger kids?
- How do the other characters in the novel, like Dicey's friends, or Mr. Lingerle, contribute to their sense of home?
Chew on This
Dicey doesn't want to go up to the attic because she's afraid that it will remind her of the home she has lost, and threaten the home she's building.
Dicey has such a problem feeling at home because she knows that she'll be picking up and leaving it soon enough. After all, there are only five years left until college.