Come a Stranger
Mina Smiths lives to dance, so her scholarship to ballet camp seems like a dream come true. She doesn't even mind being the only black girl in the troupe – that is, until she is told that she'll never be a classical dancer.
It's then that Mina begins to face some difficult truths about race and identity and transfers her passion for dance to Tamer Shipp, the summer minister for her church. The problem is, he's a grown man with a family, but she can't stop wishing for more to their friendship than simply pastor and parishioner . . .
Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Medalist (1987)
About the Tillerman Cycle Series
Books in series order
- 1.Homecoming(1981)
- 2.Dicey's Song(1982)
- 3.A Solitary Blue(1983)
- 4.The Runner(1985)
- 5.Come a Stranger(1986)
- 6.Sons from Afar(1987)
- 7.Seventeen Against the Dealer(1989)
Reading age: 11+ years
This series should be read in order.
It's still true . . .
That's the first thing James Tillerman says to his sister Dicey every morning. It's still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillerman children somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It's still true they have to find their way, somehow, to Great-aunt Cilla's house in Bridgeport, which may be their only hope of staying together as a family.
With just eleven dollars to their name, the children—aged between six and thirteen—set off on a journey across America towards an uncertain future. Will their resourcefulness and their love for one another be enough to survive? This celebrated series by Newbery award-winning author Cynthia Voigt is heartfelt, shocking and thoroughly engrossing.
A Note on the Reading Order:
The only book to have a definite reading order is the first, Homecoming, as the narratives of the other books overlap. Dicey's Song, A Solitary Blue, and Come a Stranger are the most interlocked and can be read in any order following Homecoming and before Sons from Afar and Seventeen Against the Dealer. The Runner is a stand-alone prequel, the events of which take place approximately ten years before Homecoming.