Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voight

This is the sequel to Homecoming and a Newbery winner. I read it for my Children's Literature class and I actually liked this one. It's a story about Dicey, the eldest of four children who's mother has gone insane, and the changes in her life as they are raised by the grandmother they didn't know existed. As a future teacher I was interested by this book because it talked about learning to read and how different people need different approaches; this doesn't mean that they are stupid. It also spoke about making assumptions about your students and so forth from the student's point of view.
It was a coming of age story but a good one. The author wasn't just guessing and throwing around stereotypes but still dealt with bullying, fighting, being more or less intelligent then peers, and so on. It gave me a lot to think about. Also it made me laugh and want to cry so there's also that.
Possibly bad things: Dicey is very blunt. She mentions parts of growing up but that's not really that big a deal as long as the kids reading this book know about them already. Also, it drove me crazy when Maybeth did not understand fractions and no one used musical notes to explain it to her; this is a byproduct of spending a lot of time thinking about teaching.
Rating:Anywhere from ok to Great depending on why you're reading it.
Read again? Maybe. After a couple years if I do.
You read? Yes.
Others' Comments: This was another Kiddie Lit book and there was a group discussion between those of us who had read it. My teacher was in our group because of odd numbers and her opinion was that she liked this book the first time she read it but not the second. She thinks that it is outdated; for example, Dicey's situation would have been taken care of by Social Workers before she ever had to make the journey with her siblings. I agree adn disagree. Yes the exact situation is outdated, but there are probably still situations in which children are taking care of everything because from teh outside everything looks ok. Not to mention the whole idea of children dealing with mentally ill parents. Then there is the fact that I can apparently relate to anything I read no matter how random or unrealistic it is.