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3.84 of 5 stars
Thirteen-year-old Dicey Tillerman brings her abandoned family to the home of their eccentric grandmother to learn how to trust, and when to let go.... read full description

reviews

Feb 25, 2010
Cara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
When I was at the library looking at the spine of this book I noticed how well worn and tattered it was,(a sure sign the book has been checked out many times)I began to scratch the back of my head wondering " Do I really want to read this again and run the risk of ruining my image of the book? " I took the plunge anyways and once I started to read again my doubts faded away. This book ALWAYS makes my heart go all fuzzy.

Dicey's song is the sequel to Homecoming (another gre More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jul 19, 2007
joyce lynn rated it: 5 of 5 stars
now that "Homecoming" got me "stuck" on/in a series, and invested in a couple of characters, i HAD to read this one!

in a way, i'm sorry i did, as it took me down some roads i did NOT need to go down. then again, tho ...

i'm REALLY glad i DID read this. first of all, ya know that saying, "out of the mouth of babes"? well ...

this book falls into that category, sort of. guess you have to change the old adage, tho, to "out o More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jul 08, 2007
Kim rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This is quite possible my favorite book. I read it first as a kid, and didn't realize quite how much I idolized the title character, Dicey. She was strong, independent, and different from those around her without caring much. Reading the book as an adult, I realize that Dicey was the character I most had wanted to be like as a kid.

Also cool--other books in the Tillerman Cycle, namely Come a Stranger and A Solitary Blue, tell the story from the points of view of two of Dicey's friend More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Mar 20, 2008
Meagan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Though I eventually devoured every book in this series, this was the first one I read. I loved these books as a kid - I loved that they didn't feel like books for kids at all. They seemed like "real" books - as opposed to, say, Baby Sitters Club. I love what an odd, believable character Dicey is, that she's a tomboy with a mothering instinct who wants to build boats. These books broke my heart again and again (and I did re-read them all several times.) I love the way the entire se More...
2 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 22, 2008
John rated it: 4 of 5 stars
A good book that, I suspect, will be a considered slow moving by at least some of its intended audience. Really, it's a book that adults (re: parents) want their children to like as opposed ton e they actually will like. Some will get it. Hopefully, others will come back and recognize that the pace is intentional, the plot only suffers from comparison to the (sadly more common) hyperunrealistic stories for teenagers in books and on TV, and that being big and loud aren't always prerequisites--o More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 03, 2008
Erica rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This is a John Newberry Medel book.
A thirteen-year-old Dicey Tillerman and her three siblings learn how to adjust to a new life on their grandmother's old farm in Maryland. The children seek to find their grandmother after being abandoned in a parking lot by their alcoholic mother. Dicey took on a huge responsibility by acting as a parent for her younger siblings. The children are in a safe environment and Dicey is having difficulty letting go of that role of being a mother. Dicey and he More...
Feb 12, 2012
Emma rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When the Newbery Award (given each year to a children's book that is deemed the best-written work of the past 365 days) is handed to a sequel, I always get a bit incredulous. Really? This book is great in and of itself without having read its predecessor? In my opinion, sequels should never receive awards. If you thought that they were so great, award the first book/movie/album in the series, cause otherwise the awardee isn't going to make much sense. Harumph! There are exceptions to every rule, More...
Jan 30, 2011
Samantha rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The Tillermans have finally settled down. They found their grandmother, who took them in and cares about them a lot, even though she can be prickly and mean at times. She takes care of them to the best of her ability. Dicey no longer has the responsibility of watching after her siblings, and so she spends her time cleaning up the old sailboat she found in the barn. Then school begins and everything goes pretty smoothly. Dicey slowly grows into the routine of going to school, working after-school More...
Sep 11, 2010
Lars rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Like the first in the Tillerman cycle, 'Homecoming,' I revisited 'Dicey's Song' on compact disc. Like 'Homecoming,' that auditory revisiting was perhaps even more gratifying than the completely satisfying initial read. Barbara Caruso is especially impressive as narrator here because the character of Gram is so much more central to the story. Caruso absolutely nails Gram's voice.

You might not have to have read 'Homecoming' to appreciate 'Dicey's Song' but it certainly would help. More...
Dec 04, 2009
Adama rated it: 2 of 5 stars
dicey's song by CYNTHIA VOIGT.359 pages

3) if you could change the setting in this story to another setting,
what setting would you choose? would you change just the time period? or would you change the ploace, the season , the actual environment-one of poverty, riches, or middle class america? why would you make those changes?
in this story Dicey is a tough, capable, and fiercely independent girl who is deeply loyal to and protective of her family members. if i could cha More...
Oct 20, 2009
Megan rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Without Homecoming, I can see that this book would lose some of its weight. But as a sequel, I found it fantastic and just as compelling. (Perhaps reading the two back to back helped that feeling.) Dicey is a great character, and there are still so many unanswered questions and avenues yet to be explored in her life. I can't wait to read more of the series.

I often find that I'm most excited about a book just after I finish it, and then my excitement cools. We'll see if that happens here. Usuall

More...
Apr 18, 2009
Josiah rated it: 5 of 5 stars
It seemed impossible to me that Cynthia Voigt could have improved upon her first entry in the Tillerman cycle, but the Newbery Medal gracing the cover of Dicey's Song suggested that perhaps she had managed to do just that, and upon my reading of this second book I would have to concur.
No other author seems as capable of delving so deep into the hearts of both her characters and of the reader as Cynthia Voigt. The progression of feeling in this book is both dramatic and miraculous. I found More...
Apr 05, 2009
Megan rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Dicey's Song is about a young name Dicey Tillerman and her other three siblings they leave their grandmother farm on the Maryland Shore. As told dicey family don't have much income. Dicey is the oldest out of her siblings so it’s her duty to take care of them. Many times she dream about leaving her grandmother farm and the day has finally come. Along her journey Dicey finds herself new friends and better relationship with her grandmother. But once she lets go of the past it seems to hunt her and More...
May 06, 2010
Kelly rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I hadn't read this before (or any of the later books in the series) and I was totally captivated. It's the sequel to Homecoming (where Dicey and her three younger brothers and sisters are abandoned by their mom and they make their way from Massachusetts to the eastern shore of Maryland--hey, that's where I'm from!--to their grandmother's house).

In Dicey's Song, it's about their transition to life without their mom and with their grandmother. School's started and it's causing huge c More...
Dec 05, 2008
Alice rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Book two, Dicey's Song, was the Newbery Award winner but it requires the first book, Homecoming, to make a complete set.

When Dicey launched the ancient sailboat she found in her grandmother's barn, it sank. This is a metaphor for the struggle the Tillerman family faces in the sequel to Homecoming. Just because the four abandoned children have found a home with their grandmother, life will not be "happily every after."

Each character, including the grandmother, fa More...
Jul 09, 2010
Tristan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't realize this was the second book in a series until I was halfway through it. I thought it stood on its own very well. Part of me wanted to know what happened to the kids the summer they went to Gram's house but part of me liked not knowing. When I got to the end I thought it ended quite nicely. No need to continue the story with more books but the door is left open if I change my mind.

I originally bought the book for my future sixth grade class to read but changed to a More...
Jul 24, 2009
I avoided this book for a long time because I had heard it was too upsetting for children. Yes, it is a sad book. And it might be too sad for some children. But there are lots and lots of children who would like to hear this story.

Dicey and her three siblings have come to live with their grandmother. Their mother is in a mental hospital; their father skipped out before Dicey’s youngest brother, Sammy, was born.

There are lots of problems to overcome. Dicey’s sister, Maybet More...
Mar 26, 2011
Stevecrandell rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This is the second volume in the remarkable story of the Tillermans, one of my favorite fictional families. The four children have moved past the improbable circumstances of their mid-Atlantic journey, and are now settled at their Grandma’s Chesapeake Bay home.

This secure foundation invites some strong character development. Gram is a traditional cranky old woman, set in her ways, with a heart of gold underneath all that sandpaper. She may be a stereotype, but her responses are so per More...
Feb 01, 2011
Douceline rated it: 5 of 5 stars
i love it even better than homecoming cynthia voight rules
Jun 22, 2010
Geraldine rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Dicey's Song, is the winner of the Newbery Medal and an endearing story by author Cynthia Voigt. Dicey Tillerman is a brave young girl of thirteen trying to cope with many changes in her life. She struggles with the memory of a mother who is helpless, hospitalized, and at this point in Dicey's life, oblivious to her and her three younger siblings. Therefore, with nowhere else for the family to turn they find themselves living with their Momma's mother, Gram, who occupies a rundown farmhouse al More...
Jun 20, 2011
Vanessa rated it: 5 of 5 stars
In high school, Homecoming was selected one summer on my high school summer reading list. The funny thing is, I wasn't as fond of summer reading then as I am now so I probably wouldn't bits and pieces of Homecoming as vividly if I re-read the book but hearing the character's names again, the setting and where the book left off as the author transitioned Dicey's Song (the sequel to Homecoming) has felt like a refresher.

In Dicey's song, the previously abandoned Tiller men kids (Sammy, More...
Nov 11, 2010
Erika rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book's title made me think of Elmo's song, so it's a good thing it was well-written and engrossing. It only took me a day or two to read it, so now I can leave it and Elmo's song behind me. I was surprised to see that this book had won a Newbery award, since I was just not that impressed with its predecessor, but it's a fair award. This book takes the story set up in the first one and turns it into a delightful little coming of age tale in which Dicey learns again how to be a real person a More...
Aug 31, 2009
Emily rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This is the second in Voigt’s much acclaimed “Tillerman Saga.” You do not need to have read the first, Homecoming, to enjoy Dicey’s Song. (If I’ve read it, I don’t remember it.) Thirteen-year-old Dicey is the oldest of the four Tillerman children. At the beginning of the book, the children have come to Maryland to live with their Gram. Their father was never in the picture, and their mother is in a mental hospital in Boston. Dicey, used to being the caretaker for her younger siblings, is gra More...
Mar 20, 2011
Jill rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Dicey's Song won the Newbery Award, so that's the one I read, but I must have missed something by not reading Homecoming first. It's a little crazy to award a Newbery for a sequel and not the first book. Like the Chronicles of Prydain books. I had NO idea what was going on there. At least in this book I could follow what was going on, but while I was reading it I couldn't help this nagging feeling that if I had read Homecoming I would have a better understanding of the characters. Having said th More...
Aug 19, 2009
consuelo rated it: 4 of 5 stars
My friend read this book to me about 5 years ago, and i had wanted to read it, but i could never remember the name of the book. So i yahoo answered it lol and i found it! See, the idea of people living without jobs or parents, fascinates me. I always wanted to try, but i'd probably get lost and die. but thats not the point. the point is, this is a fabulous book and i want to read more. the only problem with this book, is it is a very long series. it has about 8 books... maybe nine. well that jus More...
Aug 13, 2011
Margaret added it
Enjoyed reading this. Dicey (is that a nickname?) seems very grown-up but she's really not. She learns a lot from her grandmother and her grandmother learns a lot from her without either one of them really noticing. I'm glad she gets some closure at the end of the book (and I'm not saying anymore on that so I won't spoil it). I loved the interaction and relationships between all the siblings - Dicey, James, Maybeth and Sammy. I also liked seeing Dicey come out of her shell and develop some frie More...
Feb 16, 2010
K rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I just listened to this on Playaway and didn't like it as much as I did when I read it as a kid. Homecoming is definitely superior. Some of it is boring, some of the descriptions of black characters are insulting as is the objectification of Mr. Lingerle's fat body.
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Aug 02, 2007
Sabiel rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I really tried to like this book. I forced myself to trudge through each banal page. I cut and ran after 50 of them. I know this book won a Newberry, but I guess it was the 80s and there wasn't a whole lot of quality children's literature to nominate.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jun 14, 2010
Alex rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Dicey Tillerman is used to taking care of her three younger siblings since being abandoned by their mother. However, now she and her siblings live with their Gram, and Dicey has to deal with relinquishing the parts of her that have grown up too fast, and growing the parts that never had a chance to grow up. Like Voigt's other books I have read, this story is driven by the inner life of its characters rather than an outside plot. Dicey's story is ultimately one about coming of age, which is inter More...
Jan 26, 2008
Claire rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I didn't like this one all that much when I was a teen, but it was strong enough on this re-read to leave me waiting to read the others. The relationships and the characters' voices were completely convincing.
0 comments like (1 person liked it)