Like Sisters on the Homefront

Rita Williams-Garcia’s masterful and bold Coretta Scott King Honor Book is fresh, funny, and powerfully relevant. This novel by a master storyteller and Newbery Honor-winning author is about one girl’s discovery of her family history—and her own place within it.

When fourteen-year-old Gayle gets in trouble with a boy—again—her mother doesn’t give her a choice: Gayle is getting sent away from New York to her family down South, along with her baby, José.

In a small town in Georgia, there is nowhere to go but church, nothing to do but chores, and no friends except her goody-goody, big-boned, kneesock-wearing cousin, Cookie. Gayle is stuck cleaning up after Great, the old family matriarch who stays upstairs in her bed.

But the more she spends time with Cookie and Great, Gayle learns about her family’s history and secrets, stretching all the way back through the preachers and ancestors of the past. And slowly, the stories of her roots begin to change how Gayle sees her future.

Like Sisters on the Homefront is a fast, gritty read about mistakes, second chances, and family. A strong choice for summer reading and for sparking conversation in the classroom or at home.

She thinks she’s being sent away for punishment. What if she’s really being sent home?

• Teen Pregnancy Realism: Fourteen-year-old Gayle is already a mother, and when she gets in trouble again, she’s shipped from New York to a place with no escape.
• An Unlikely Sisterhood: Stuck in Georgia, her only ally is her cousin Cookie—if they don’t drive each other crazy first.
• A Rich Family History: While caring for her great-grandmother, Gayle uncovers the long-lost stories of her ancestors, changing how she sees herself and her future.
• A Powerful Second Chance: A gritty, unflinching, and funny novel about discovering that your roots are stronger than your mistakes.