Iggie's House

Gr 4—6—Winnie misses her best friend, Iggie, who moved with her family to Japan and mopes around the house in this novel by Judy Blume (Atheneum, 2002 rerelease). When she goes to see who moved into her friend's house, Winnie discovers a "Negro" family with three kids outside. She is excited to have her first "colored" neighbors, the Garbers. As Winnie befriends the family's children, the siblings are skeptical at first, and the eldest is perturbed that people always think they are from Africa, not Detroit. As Winnie gets to know the family, a busybody neighbor circulates a petition to households on Grove Street stating that "colored people" are not welcome in the neighborhood and that they must leave. As the tensions among neighbors mount, Winnie learns there is more to people than just the color of their skin as she discovers that, rather than focusing on being a good neighbor, she should just be a friend. Emily Janice Card provides superior narration, voicing the emotions of all the characters. Through the trials of one neighborhood, listeners learn about racial tension from a child's point of view.—Janet Weber, Tigard Public Library, OR