Homecoming

Since Homecoming’s debut in 1981, readers have celebrated Cynthia Voigt for her insights into human relationships and the complexities of adolescence. She writes across various genres, including realistic fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. In addition to her young adult novels, Voigt published two adult fiction novels. Voigt received dozens of awards and honorable mentions for her writing, most notably the Newberry Medal for Dicey’s Song from the Tillerman Cycle series.

Voigt’s writing approaches complex subject matter honestly while withholding shock value. Though her work doesn’t shy away from emotionally distressing themes, it explores such themes with sensitivity. In Homecoming, Voigt regularly describes the children’s hunger as they search for safety, a realistic struggle for millions of American children. The novel also critiques national food assistance programs and the negative attitudes often associated with them. Additionally, Dicey breaks an abusive cycle of punishing children with hunger when she refuses to send Sammy to bed without dinner. In standing up to Abigail’s archaic punishment, Dicey risks losing a comfortable home for herself and her siblings, highlighting her resilience and moral strength.

Voigt draws heavily from her own geographical surroundings to craft the settings of her books. Voight has lived in Connecticut, Maryland, Maine, Pennsylvania, New York City, New Mexico, and South Carolina, and all but New Mexico are represented in her work. Homecoming relies heavily on description of the landscape the Tillerman children traverse, especially when near the ocean. Just before meeting Eunice, Dicey looks “out over the quiet blue water, knowing that although the surface [is] calm, the great tides [are] moving underneath” (131), illustrating how Voigt frequently uses geographical description to build metaphor, adding depth to characters and themes while enriching the setting with descriptive writing.