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.

Sent from New York to a place she doesn’t know, Gayle has to face the family—and the history—she never knew she had.

Teen Pregnancy: Fourteen-year-old Gayle is already a mother to baby José when her family discovers she’s pregnant again. Her consequence: a one-way ticket to Georgia. New York to the South: For a girl from Queens, a small town in Georgia feels like a prison of chores, church, and rules with no escape. Cousin Sisterhood: Forced to live with her goody-goody cousin Cookie, Gayle finds an unlikely ally—and a friendship that feels like a real sisterhood. Family Secrets: From her dying great-grandmother, Gayle uncovers a powerful family history of preachers, ancestors, and secrets that changes how she sees herself and her future.