Customer Reviews

Like Sisters on the Homefront

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3 star:		(2)
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Rita Williams-Garcia's Like Sisters on the Homefront is the tale of a fourteen-year-old girl who is sent by her mother to live with her Aunt and Uncle in the south after getting pregnant for the second time. Gayle Whitaker, the protagonist in the story, compares her stay at the relatives as 'being sold into slavery'.(Williams-Garcia. 23)
This link is constantly being made throughout the story by Gayle, a girl who seems to lack any kind of regard towards anyone or anything except herself and three friends. The reader has a hard time connecting to her because she appears so self-centered which although common among young teenagers is hard to accept from a girl who seems older than her years as a result of her experiences. It is only through Gayle's interpretation of the world that one can see how vulnerable she is and realize that her lack in concern is directly related towards her age and development.
Gayle's lack of any type of emotion is clear from the beginning of the book when the reader discovers she is pregnant. To the reader it seems as though her regard to her situation is without concern. Her response to the abortion was more a sense of annoyance than any type of loss or even understanding about consequences. When the Doctor tries to offer some sympathy and encouragement during the procedure Gayle responded with, "Oh, Doc, it ain?t nothing to cry about."(Williams-Garcia. 8)
The inconsistency Gayle expresses shows how she can still easily be taken advantage. Throughout most of the book she tries contacting her boyfriend Troy with no success. Instead of realizing he has moved on she places the blame of his lack of response on everybody else but him. Yet the flight attendant on the plane causes Gayle to feel suspicious. "Gayle didn?t trust her. She was to nice." (Williams-Garcia. 21)
Although she seems experienced and often the reader forgets her age, comments Gayle makes throughout the book often expose how young and unexposed to the world she really is. While flying over New York, Gayle notices the landmarks like a wide-eyed child. "Jose! Look. There go that Freedom Lady and her torch. See! And those two giant buildings be on postcards. Look!"(Williams-Garcia. 22)
Upon meeting her relatives at the airport, Gayle refuses to show any emotion towards her cousin Constance. Although she is aware the 'insolent' response to her cousins 'sympatric look' causes Constance to feel rejected and reveals this by justifying her unfriendly behavior to herself. "How can I smile at you? Smiling means we know the same thing, and you don't even know what I'm feeling. Cootie still sore fore the abortion. Ears still ringing from the plane ride. Back fit to split wide open from playing the mule, but I?m s?posed to be grinning at you?"(Williams-Garcia. 27)
Many readers may have a hard time relating to this book. The main character seems shallow. Taking a closer look though shows depth to Gayle and allows a great deal of maturity and growth throughout the book.

What if your mother sent you away to Georgia because you kept getting into trouble? Gayle Whittaker, an impertinent 14-year-old girl, is very disrespectful toward herself and her elders. Her view on life is misunderstood because she thinks school is not needed. In addition, she has a baby, Jose, but gets pregnant again and her mother forces her to get an abortion. Her mother realizes that if she doesn't take action Gayle will get even more disrespectful toward everyone. She decides to send Gayle to Georgia to live with her uncle. At first Gayle thinks that sending her to Georgia is a waste, so she doesn't cooperate with her uncle and his family. Gayle starts to realize how important life is once she meets her great grandmother, who knows all about the power of her family.
Rita Williams-Garcia, the author of Like Sisters on the Homefront, used a lot of details to get her message across. I felt as though she expanded on certain subjects where she needed to and left some things to the imagination. She made it seem like you were the character. In comparison to other authors I think she used fewer details, but that didn't take away from the book.
I would recommend Like Sister on the Homefront to young females between the ages of 12 and 16 because it speaks to people who are confused about there purpose in life. I would also recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction because it teaches you that there are unexpected obstacles that are thrown at you in life, but you just have to make wise decisions when you reach those obstacles.

I've read this book 3 times over! It has a great plot and it captures the readers attensions from the very begin (which is a good thing to keep a young person interested). Me being a young adult myself, I could relate to characters, and it is as just a great book focused on and for the African American youth.

Like Sisters on the Homefront


Gayle is a fourteen year old girl who is living like she is twenty. She's on drugs having sex allot. An she ends up having, a baby named Jose she doesn't know who the father is or anything. Her mom really doesn't care about her she cares about her brother Junie . So Gayle really doesn't care about anything no more. So she meets a guy a name Troy and they start dating an having sex. Then two months later she finds out she's pregnant for the second time. Her mom got very angry a she took her to the women's clinic in N.Y ,.She makes her get an abortion and they tied her tubes. Gayle was very angry she didn't want to talk to her mom. So when she gets home all her stuff is packed up. Her mom bought her a plane ticket to Jamaica where her uncle an aunt live Gayle did not want to go. When she arrived her uncle an aunt were waiting for her. Later she met her great grandma who was very old an dying nobody wanted her everyone wanted her to die. So then they give Gayle the rules she has to clean everything between her an her cousin Cookie. Gayle felt like a slave in the deep Jamaican woods she couldn't leave or anything only go to church on Sundays. Then Cookie meets a boy who she really likes and she was about to have sex with. But Gayle said don't do it don't make my mistake. Then Cookie goes an does it an grandma? I highly recommend this book to young teenagers it is a really good book.

I've learned to fear books about teen moms because too often they turn into moralistic sermons or succumb to simple-minded stereotypes (i.e., long-suffering grandmother, wise-beyond-years teen). But Like Sisters was brilliant. Williams-Garcia gives us the flavor of Gayle's wonderfully rich language (e.g., an angry Mama's neck is described as 'snaking figure eights') without being condescending or sounding forced. She also suggests the complexities of families, of being a teenager, of raising a kid, of leaving NYC and moving 'Souf' -- and again, without the brick between the eyes approach of many other young adult approaches. This is a powerful, beautifully written book. Brilliant.

It really showed what alot of young teenagers go through in life. It also showed the importance of your relationship with God, the fellowship with other Christians,and good moral values. I really recieved a good message from reading this book and I recommend all pre-teens to read it.

My eighth graders loved this book! They were so excited after I read the first page to them as a preview of what's to come, that they went to the library to check out the book because they weren't scheduled to read it for another week. They really connected with the author's use of language and her up-front, in your face style of writing.
The author deals with teen pregnancy, abortion, and religion in a well-written, well- balanced way. She makes sure that the "real deal" of these teen issues are portrayed, as well as offering a "there's still hope" message for the readers.
As a reading teacher, part of my job is to expose my students to well-written, exciting books they might not ordinarily find on their own, and I'm surely glad that this wonderful treasure has been found!

Gayle was an `around the way girl,' straight from the projects of Harlem. She had a sharp tongue and funky attitude. She didn't respect her elders and she had absolutely no respect for her mother. She was the perfect example as to what would happen to a teen that would drop out of school and do nothing with her life. She had a baby with a married man at the age of 13 and she was pregnant with her second child at the age of 14, but her mother made her get an abortion.

Her mother sent her to live with her aunt and uncle in Georgia. It was a different environment for her. She couldn't hang out on the streets with her so-called "girls" anymore and she couldn't lazy around all day doing nothing. Her relatives in Georgia lived a nice life. They had a nice large home. Her uncle was the pastor of a church and they had a daughter named Cookie who was 16 and overweight.

Cookie was the lead singer in the choir and in-love with the local college's star football player. He respected Cookie but her cousin, Gayle, kept trying to get her to have sex with him. Cookie loved God and she respected her body and God's commandment not to have sex until you get married. Gayle was a bad influence but Cookie, on the other hand, was a great influence on Gayle.

Gayle decided that she didn't want to attend school and her aunt did not enforce it. She gave her a choice. She either go to school or stay home and work as the housekeeper and babysit her great grandmother that they called Great. Cookie chose to do the housekeeping. Although she felt that her aunt treated her as a slave. For most of the story, Gayle was trying to find ways to get back to Harlem. She wanted to make another baby with her boyfriend. That was her way of trying to get back at her mother for having her to get an abortion.

Great was a wise old woman who stayed in her bed 24-7. Cookie would bath, feed and change her clothes. After awhile, she grew to love her great grandmother. Great's last wish was to have some homemade Peach liquor. She told Gayle the ingredients and Gayle made her some but without anyone's knowledge. Her uncle would not allow alcohol in the house.

We laughed when Gayle was trying to buy a walkman. Walkman? Wasn't that in the 1980s? We knew then that the book was outdated. Nowadays, it's all about CDs and DVDs. Gayle's language was very, very hard to understand. She spoke in Ebonics which was hard for us to follow the story. But that was the language and lifestyle she grew up in. If you can manage through the dialect, then you'll find a good story behind it.

The premise of the story teaches that education is important and even though Gayle loved her baby, he interfered in the things that she wanted to do but couldn't because she had to tend to his needs first. Her priorities were screwed up but her relatives helped her to see the light. We recommend this novel because it had a good example. It answers the question what would happen if you disregard your education and get involved in premarital sex.

3.5 Snaps!!!-!
Teens'R'Us

Williams Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront. Dutton: Lodestar Books, 1995.

Like Sisters on the Homefront is a book that could actually be used for learning from our mistakes. This book could actually teach some morals to a lot of people, especially teenage girls. It is about a girl, Gayle who makes a lot of mistakes in her life. Gayle is a very tough, brave girl who doesn't cry for anything, no matter how much it hurts. First she gets pregnant by a married man and later when she is 14 she gets pregnant again by another guy, but her mother makes her get an abortion. Her mother then sends her off to live with her very strict, Uncle Luther. There she has to work really hard and get along with her very upright cousin, Cookie. The only person she can relate to there is, Great, her great grandmother who teaches her about her family history. It is there where she learns her manners and becomes a respectful person and where she cries for the first time. The best part of all is that she decides to go back to school. Gayle changes her life a lot, all for the better.

Change

Change is common in everyone's life, in fact it happens constantly. Change is crucial in all lives because people should be open to different things. This is the only way that people will be able to succeed in life. In the book Like Sisters on the Homefront, Gayle a fourteen-year-old mother, changes dramatically for good. She changes from being a rude, mean, tough girl who above everything, has not, and does not plan to ever cry for anyone or anything in her whole life. Gayle changes every aspect of herself once it comes to her attention that those are not good qualities for any person to have. Gayle changes the way she acts towards school, her mother, her son, her sisters on the homefront, even the way she talks, and well of course she pretty much changes her attitude towards the whole entire world.
One thing that my parents taught was to be respectful to all elders whether I know them or not but Gayle sure is not even respectful to any elder, not even her mother.
Before Gayle went to her Uncle Luther's house she was always a really rude person to everybody whether she new them or whether she didn't. An example of this is when she was really rude to her mother. She would never listen to what her mother would say, she would ignore her, and she would not do what her mother would ask her to do. Whatever her mother would say she would do the complete opposite, everything her mother would say would go in through one ear and would go out the other ear. She was always mouthing off to her mother and as we all know that is very disrespectful. Gayle was also very rude to her aunt in Georgia, her cousin Cookie, and even her friends' mothers. After her journey of self-reflection she changes the way that she is, meaning that she is not so

disrespectful towards everyone. Some ways that show this is how she decides to listen to her mother. She also decides to be more open to new things. Like before she changes she hated church and she hated how Cookie was always talking about god and how her cousin is in the choir. After her change she decides to go to church on her own will and she even considers joining the choir.
Another one of her really bad qualities is her attitude. Her attitude also changes thoroughly. Before she went to her Uncle Luther's house she didn't care much for school or for baby, two very important things of her life. These are very important things because in order to make something of yourself you have to go to school and graduate. Her baby is also a very important thing because she has to take care of him and lead him in the right path, so that her son will not have such messed up life just like hers. This is something else that she is able to change drastically. She is able to notice with the help of other people that she has to do both things, finish school and raise her son properly. That is exactly the reason why she decides to go back to school to graduate and she also starts to take better care of her son. Another very important thing that shows how she changes her attitude is when she cries for the first time. Her crying shows how she is not so sober anymore.
So as you can see change is very important. Change is especially important when it has to do with the way you are. It might be hard but you should still try hard to change a little. It is very important to be open to a lot of new things as well as being a good person, concerning the your actions, your attitude, and being open to new things. Just like Gayle changed her life you can also change your own. It wasn't easy for Gayle to change her bad aspects, but she still did with the help of others. You should really read the book so that you can see how you can change and what could help you change while also reading how Gayle changes and what she does to change.

I recommend this book earnestly, because you can learn a lot from. This is a book that you can learn a lot from so that you won't make really bad mistakes that could mess up your life. So I really hope that you will really read this book so that you can be conscience and you can ponder about some things before you do them.

I was never allowed into my Great-Grandmothers home, who live next door to my grandparents. Yet I had other cousins that not only were let into her house they received gifts that my sisters and I never did. It was to the extent when we went to vist I remember her always coming outside to spray for bugs. Unless for as long as you can rember after 53 years as it was yerstarday, that the color of your skin made you unacceptable to your own flesh and blood, you can learn about a subjectb some aren't familiar with, a portion of the population (African American) does not want to know, a portion that cares to forget, but unfortunatly the majority who have experienced this type of rejection from their family,is there an appreciate that the story is told. So this is recommended reading for all, educational and inspirtation.

THANK YOU