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ardaigle's review against another edition
5.0
I'm enjoying my revisit to The Tillerman Cycle books, which were a favorite when I was a youth/teen. Though categorized as children's books, they tackle adult themes with care and nuance that gives them a timeless quality. This book is the 5th in the 7 book series. Though the series is centered on the Tillerman family with teenaged Dicey as our protagonist, in this installment we get a deep dive into the life of Dicey's best friend, Nina.
We first met Mina in "Dicey's Song," book two, when she wears down Dicey into being her friend. Mina is outspoken and confident; she is intrigued by Dicey's attitude and intelligence, and her complete disregard for what other people think about her. Dicey starts out resistant to Mina's overtures, moving toward reluctant and finally accepting, and a friendship is forged. None of the Tillerman's come by friends easily, but once they open up, they make a lasting impression and are loyal to the core. This brings us back to this book.
Tamer Shipp is Mina's adult crush, a traveling preacher, and she spends the summer helping his family while nursing her unrealistic first love. She also is dealing with an abrupt entry into adulthood as she begins to understand what her blackness means both to her opportunities, and to the world at large. We met Tamer in the 4th book "The Runner" where he befriends a reluctant Bullet as Bullet was forced by their track coach into helping Tamer learn how to run cross country in high school. And thus, in this book, we see how the Tillerman family's reluctance to rely on others has echoes across time.
My upbringing was pretty racially homogenous as most of the people in my community and circle were also white and I am certain that these books gave me valuable exposure to others' perspectives and voices. I would recommend this series to an adult as a primer for children and would recommend this book to anyone looking for something for a kiddo to give them a look at real-world topics that still resonate today. Though a bit dated, the themes are still impactful.
We first met Mina in "Dicey's Song," book two, when she wears down Dicey into being her friend. Mina is outspoken and confident; she is intrigued by Dicey's attitude and intelligence, and her complete disregard for what other people think about her. Dicey starts out resistant to Mina's overtures, moving toward reluctant and finally accepting, and a friendship is forged. None of the Tillerman's come by friends easily, but once they open up, they make a lasting impression and are loyal to the core. This brings us back to this book.
Tamer Shipp is Mina's adult crush, a traveling preacher, and she spends the summer helping his family while nursing her unrealistic first love. She also is dealing with an abrupt entry into adulthood as she begins to understand what her blackness means both to her opportunities, and to the world at large. We met Tamer in the 4th book "The Runner" where he befriends a reluctant Bullet as Bullet was forced by their track coach into helping Tamer learn how to run cross country in high school. And thus, in this book, we see how the Tillerman family's reluctance to rely on others has echoes across time.
My upbringing was pretty racially homogenous as most of the people in my community and circle were also white and I am certain that these books gave me valuable exposure to others' perspectives and voices. I would recommend this series to an adult as a primer for children and would recommend this book to anyone looking for something for a kiddo to give them a look at real-world topics that still resonate today. Though a bit dated, the themes are still impactful.
lunaseassecondaccount's review against another edition
3.0
Not nearly as scandalous as the blurb implied. Voigt has a good grasp on character, but her characters speak and act more like twenty-year-olds in the 1950s than twelve-year-olds in the 1990s. Too many side stories meant the story dragged along in some areas. The depth of the relationships would have gone straight over the target audiences heads.
peterpokeypanda's review against another edition
4.0
Oh my goodness, I love Cynthia Voigt's writing, or at least the Tillerman Cycle (I've never read anything else by her, but I probably will after I finish the Tillerman Cycle because I love it so much.) The books Homecoming and Dicey's Song made a huge impression on me as a child; Dicey and James and Maybeth and Sammy and all the other characters were almost real people to me. I read those two books over and over again.
This book, which I read out of order (apparently that's a thing for me with this series; I read Dicey's Song first of all the books, then Homecoming, then Seventeen Against the Dealer which is Book #7, but luckily they mostly seem to be not strictly chronological except for those three, so I should be okay?) - I still haven't read books 3 and 4 - is different than Homecoming and Dicey's Song. It's sadder and happier at the same time. Sadder, because it's about discovering the badness of the world, and Homecoming and Dicey's Song are more focused on characters who know the badness of the world and are learning to know and accept the goodness of it. Happier, because Mina Smiths is much more hopeful than Dicey. Perhaps it's because the things that Mina faces are huge and terrible, and yet still perhaps small in comparison to the Tillermans'; Mina comes from a safe, happy home with parents and siblings who love her; she has faith in God, and a strong community centered on that faith. The Tillermans, on the other hand, have been abandoned by their father and their mother and are orphans living with their grandmother who is just learning how to love again after an abusive marriage and the death of her son in a war. So Mina's discovery of the racism she faces because of her skin is, perhaps, a badness of the world that runs contrary to the world that she is able to recognize as fundamentally good, whereas the Tillermans have no such basis for believing the world is good.
At any rate, I thought it was beautiful. It's beautiful as its own book; it presents (as far as I know) a realistic picture of racism - not overdone, but not understated, either - and a realistic portrayal of what it looks like to be a Black person learning to love oneself in a world that is against you, whether or not that enmity is made explicit. I'm white, so I don't know personally what that's like, but it's consistent with what I know from one dear black friend and the education I've received through reading and classes on the subject. It's beautifully written, with wonderful characters, with deep sadness but also deep hope. Mina, in particular, is deep and dynamic and interesting and wonderful. The book is also beautiful as part of the Tillerman cycle; it adds depth to the larger story, which is not just about Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, but also about Mina and her family, Tamer Shipp, Abigail Tillerman, Bullet Tillerman, and Jeff. I am impressed by Cynthia Voigt and how she is able to develop all these characters at once and make me care about all of them and connect them in such a detailed and beautiful way.
I can't wait to read this whole series in order. I anticipate that the story as a whole will be one of my favorites ever; I certainly know that Homecoming and Dicey's Song are two of my favorite books of all time, and I suspect that Come a Stranger will be as well, or at least close to it.
This book, which I read out of order (apparently that's a thing for me with this series; I read Dicey's Song first of all the books, then Homecoming, then Seventeen Against the Dealer which is Book #7, but luckily they mostly seem to be not strictly chronological except for those three, so I should be okay?) - I still haven't read books 3 and 4 - is different than Homecoming and Dicey's Song. It's sadder and happier at the same time. Sadder, because it's about discovering the badness of the world, and Homecoming and Dicey's Song are more focused on characters who know the badness of the world and are learning to know and accept the goodness of it. Happier, because Mina Smiths is much more hopeful than Dicey. Perhaps it's because the things that Mina faces are huge and terrible, and yet still perhaps small in comparison to the Tillermans'; Mina comes from a safe, happy home with parents and siblings who love her; she has faith in God, and a strong community centered on that faith. The Tillermans, on the other hand, have been abandoned by their father and their mother and are orphans living with their grandmother who is just learning how to love again after an abusive marriage and the death of her son in a war. So Mina's discovery of the racism she faces because of her skin is, perhaps, a badness of the world that runs contrary to the world that she is able to recognize as fundamentally good, whereas the Tillermans have no such basis for believing the world is good.
At any rate, I thought it was beautiful. It's beautiful as its own book; it presents (as far as I know) a realistic picture of racism - not overdone, but not understated, either - and a realistic portrayal of what it looks like to be a Black person learning to love oneself in a world that is against you, whether or not that enmity is made explicit. I'm white, so I don't know personally what that's like, but it's consistent with what I know from one dear black friend and the education I've received through reading and classes on the subject. It's beautifully written, with wonderful characters, with deep sadness but also deep hope. Mina, in particular, is deep and dynamic and interesting and wonderful. The book is also beautiful as part of the Tillerman cycle; it adds depth to the larger story, which is not just about Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, but also about Mina and her family, Tamer Shipp, Abigail Tillerman, Bullet Tillerman, and Jeff. I am impressed by Cynthia Voigt and how she is able to develop all these characters at once and make me care about all of them and connect them in such a detailed and beautiful way.
I can't wait to read this whole series in order. I anticipate that the story as a whole will be one of my favorites ever; I certainly know that Homecoming and Dicey's Song are two of my favorite books of all time, and I suspect that Come a Stranger will be as well, or at least close to it.
casehouse's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. I love the way the "Tillerman Cycle" weaves together stories from multiple generations of several families. Homecoming is by far the best of the cycle. This is the backstory of a friend of the main character of that novel.
kickpleat's review against another edition
2.0
Another one in the Tillerman series, but very disappointing. This one wasn't compelling enough on its own and Mina just didn't seem real enough. I lost interest early on but kept on reading because I was hoping things would pick up.
lonecayt's review against another edition
4.0
This one meandered a bit more than most of the others, and introduced a new character in the last 5 pages who I seriously doubt will get much (if any) character development in the remaining books. Oh, well. It was still quite good.
inthelunaseas's review against another edition
3.0
Not nearly as scandalous as the blurb implied. Voigt has a good grasp on character, but her characters speak and act more like twenty-year-olds in the 1950s than twelve-year-olds in the 1990s. Too many side stories meant the story dragged along in some areas. The depth of the relationships would have gone straight over the target audiences heads.
finesilkflower's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this book, because I loved the first two volumes of the Tillerman saga; and Mina, the main character of this installment, was my favorite character from "Dicey's Song." When I saw that book three of the series was not from Dicey's POV, instead of reading it, I immediately looked to see if there was one about Mina and lo, there was!, so I read this one right away, skipping over books 3-4. I think this was fine - I wasn't lost - but I would definitely read "Dicey's Song" before this one.
The book discusses race in a way that is surprisingly nuanced for a 90's YA novel written by a white person. While I sometimes felt that Voigt wasn't the right person to be exploring these issues (a POC author would have been better), in the context of a series with multiple POV's, it's better, I think, to do your best with a POC perspective than have all the protagonists be white. Voigt does a good job of making Mina's blackness important, but not the only thing that defines her, and of empathizing with the stressful position of being a token minority. She also begins to approach the idea that white people decided what is 'high culture', what's important to learn in school, what to put on standardized tests, and so on, although I would have liked this thread followed a bit more - she doesn't, for example, get all the way to colonialism.
On a moment-to-moment / page-to-page level, I really enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end. I love Mina as a character, and Voigt's prose is always gorgeous, simple and straightforward but emotionally dense. The problem is with the larger structure of the story. I was waiting/expecting Voigt to draw the different parts of the story together, but it never really happened. It's a meandering narrative that takes Mina all the way from fifth grade, through the events of "Dicey's Song" in eighth (and beyond, in an unnecessary epilogue). It lacks the unity of time of "Homecoming" or "Dicey's Song," and loses by it.
Although I was looking forward to getting to Dicey because I love Dicey and Mina's relationship, I unfortunately felt that the book took a dip in quality when we got to the events of "Dicey's Song." The one thing you don't want to do, from a racial sensitivity perspective, is write a book from the POV of a POC character but just make it be all about white characters, and tbh that is sort of what happens once Dicey is introduced? Mina sort of becomes a vessel through which to observe Dicey, which is absolutely not cool at all.
Another problem is that pivotal scenes from "Dicey's Song" are just sort of summarized, I think in an effort to keep from being repetitive. But I think this should not have been a worry! Most people reading the series in order would have had two books in between, and even I, who read "Dicey's Song" immediately before this, still would have preferred to see the relevant scenes play out in detail. Most disappointing was not getting the triumphant feeling of watching Mina completely Perry Mason a whole English class to defend Dicey from accusations of plagiarism. From her POV this could have been even better, but it's sort of glossed over in a way that it wouldn't be if "Dicey's Song" didn't exist. I think the goal for an "alternate POV" book like this should be that it stands completely on its own and is satisfying even if, for some reason, you've never read the original it's remixing.
The biggest disappointment was the final chapter, a totally unnecessarily epilogue in which Mina exists only to witness the introduction of new character Dexter. It just is such a terrible idea to introduce a new character in an epilogue. It's extremely unsatisfying and also does a disservice to Mina to again be a vessel to observe someone else (at least it's another black character this time). Mina is amazing and bombastic and should not be relegated to the sidelines in her own book!
Punchup
There is plenty of good material here, but it is really two (or more) books:
1. Mina's summers at ballet camp could have been an entire book. She was supposed to have three; in the book, she only ends up going twice, but I think it would have been better, especially if expanding this part of the book to the length of an entire middle-grades novel, to keep the third summer, making each of the three hit different emotional notes. e.g. first summer: happily oblivious to racial weirdness, just glad to be there; second summer: realizes she's a token minority and subtly treated differently, feels resentful/isolated; third summer: she starts MAKING TROUBLE. I think that an arc like this would have been more satisfying and more explanatory of who Mina is and why, and giving this storyline more breathing room would have created more opportunity to make explicit some of the lessons about race, culture, and identity that are implied. While one of Voigt's strengths is hinting at emotional lessons without knocking you over the head, I think when it comes to race - especially for white readers who may not have had to consider these topics much - it's better to make the message very clear.
2. The book that is essentially "Dicey's Song" from Mina's perspective. Considering this as a distinct narrative would probably also have improved it, because as it is, I feel like it's unclear what we're supposed to get from seeing the same scenes from Dicey's book but from Mina's perspective. The coolest part is learning the backstory with Tamer Shipp that draws various threads together and informed Mina's persistence in trying to befriend Dicey despite her prickliness (something that needed explaining from "Dicey's Song"). But, that explanation cannot be the entire point of taking us through all the beats of Dicey and Mina's relationship again. I would have liked to see other things going on at the same time (so that Dicey wasn't the only important thing in Mina's life at this time, just as Mina isn't the only important thing in Dicey's life in her book), and I also would have liked more of an exploration of who Dicey is to Mina, and why the relationship becomes meaningful in its own right, beyond her original intention of introducing her to Tamer Shipp.
Queer Readings
There is no overt queer content in this book. It is my private headcanon that Mina is bisexual and that Mina and Dicey are in love. (So I guess one of the reasons I lose interest toward the end is that love interests for both of them are introduced.) Mina does spend a lot of time admiring women's beauty in this book. The book TELLS you that she has a crush on Tamer, but it SHOWS you how gorgeous she thinks Tamer's wife Alice is.
The book discusses race in a way that is surprisingly nuanced for a 90's YA novel written by a white person. While I sometimes felt that Voigt wasn't the right person to be exploring these issues (a POC author would have been better), in the context of a series with multiple POV's, it's better, I think, to do your best with a POC perspective than have all the protagonists be white. Voigt does a good job of making Mina's blackness important, but not the only thing that defines her, and of empathizing with the stressful position of being a token minority. She also begins to approach the idea that white people decided what is 'high culture', what's important to learn in school, what to put on standardized tests, and so on, although I would have liked this thread followed a bit more - she doesn't, for example, get all the way to colonialism.
On a moment-to-moment / page-to-page level, I really enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end. I love Mina as a character, and Voigt's prose is always gorgeous, simple and straightforward but emotionally dense. The problem is with the larger structure of the story. I was waiting/expecting Voigt to draw the different parts of the story together, but it never really happened. It's a meandering narrative that takes Mina all the way from fifth grade, through the events of "Dicey's Song" in eighth (and beyond, in an unnecessary epilogue). It lacks the unity of time of "Homecoming" or "Dicey's Song," and loses by it.
Although I was looking forward to getting to Dicey because I love Dicey and Mina's relationship, I unfortunately felt that the book took a dip in quality when we got to the events of "Dicey's Song." The one thing you don't want to do, from a racial sensitivity perspective, is write a book from the POV of a POC character but just make it be all about white characters, and tbh that is sort of what happens once Dicey is introduced? Mina sort of becomes a vessel through which to observe Dicey, which is absolutely not cool at all.
Another problem is that pivotal scenes from "Dicey's Song" are just sort of summarized, I think in an effort to keep from being repetitive. But I think this should not have been a worry! Most people reading the series in order would have had two books in between, and even I, who read "Dicey's Song" immediately before this, still would have preferred to see the relevant scenes play out in detail. Most disappointing was not getting the triumphant feeling of watching Mina completely Perry Mason a whole English class to defend Dicey from accusations of plagiarism. From her POV this could have been even better, but it's sort of glossed over in a way that it wouldn't be if "Dicey's Song" didn't exist. I think the goal for an "alternate POV" book like this should be that it stands completely on its own and is satisfying even if, for some reason, you've never read the original it's remixing.
The biggest disappointment was the final chapter, a totally unnecessarily epilogue in which Mina exists only to witness the introduction of new character Dexter. It just is such a terrible idea to introduce a new character in an epilogue. It's extremely unsatisfying and also does a disservice to Mina to again be a vessel to observe someone else (at least it's another black character this time). Mina is amazing and bombastic and should not be relegated to the sidelines in her own book!
Punchup
There is plenty of good material here, but it is really two (or more) books:
1. Mina's summers at ballet camp could have been an entire book. She was supposed to have three; in the book, she only ends up going twice, but I think it would have been better, especially if expanding this part of the book to the length of an entire middle-grades novel, to keep the third summer, making each of the three hit different emotional notes. e.g. first summer: happily oblivious to racial weirdness, just glad to be there; second summer: realizes she's a token minority and subtly treated differently, feels resentful/isolated; third summer: she starts MAKING TROUBLE. I think that an arc like this would have been more satisfying and more explanatory of who Mina is and why, and giving this storyline more breathing room would have created more opportunity to make explicit some of the lessons about race, culture, and identity that are implied. While one of Voigt's strengths is hinting at emotional lessons without knocking you over the head, I think when it comes to race - especially for white readers who may not have had to consider these topics much - it's better to make the message very clear.
2. The book that is essentially "Dicey's Song" from Mina's perspective. Considering this as a distinct narrative would probably also have improved it, because as it is, I feel like it's unclear what we're supposed to get from seeing the same scenes from Dicey's book but from Mina's perspective. The coolest part is learning the backstory with Tamer Shipp that draws various threads together and informed Mina's persistence in trying to befriend Dicey despite her prickliness (something that needed explaining from "Dicey's Song"). But, that explanation cannot be the entire point of taking us through all the beats of Dicey and Mina's relationship again. I would have liked to see other things going on at the same time (so that Dicey wasn't the only important thing in Mina's life at this time, just as Mina isn't the only important thing in Dicey's life in her book), and I also would have liked more of an exploration of who Dicey is to Mina, and why the relationship becomes meaningful in its own right, beyond her original intention of introducing her to Tamer Shipp.
Queer Readings
There is no overt queer content in this book. It is my private headcanon that Mina is bisexual and that Mina and Dicey are in love. (So I guess one of the reasons I lose interest toward the end is that love interests for both of them are introduced.) Mina does spend a lot of time admiring women's beauty in this book. The book TELLS you that she has a crush on Tamer, but it SHOWS you how gorgeous she thinks Tamer's wife Alice is.
nedge's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0