Like Sisters on the Homefront

Combining a streetwise and authentic teenage voice, Rita Williams-Garcia’s children’s novel Like Sisters on the Homefront (1995) explores the role of family roots, religion, and simple love in elevating a young woman beyond the limitations of her circumstances.

The story opens as Mama walks in on her fourteen-year-old daughter Gayle vomiting in the bathroom, realizing that Gayle is pregnant for the second time. Mama slaps Gayle in anger and then instructs her to dress her baby and come with her. Gayle asks where, but Mama doesn’t answer. Believing the father is a boy named Troy, Gayle’s brother vows to hurt him. Mama informs Gayle that she is taking her to the Women’s Clinic to get an abortion.

Ignoring attempts by others to convince her to make a different choice, Gayle undergoes the procedure without much emotion. When she is finished, Mama tells her that as she can’t be trusted, she will be leaving Jamaica, Queens, to go live with Mama’s brother Luther and his family in Georgia. Gayle is unhappy about this, likening the prospect of being forced to move to Georgia to being sold into slavery. She has never met her mother’s family and wants nothing to do with them. Gayle’s son, Jose, was fathered by a Puerto Rican man who wants her to put Jose up for adoption, but Gayle refuses.



Gayle travels to Georgia and is met by Luther, his wife, Miss Auntie, and his daughter, Cookie. They live outside Columbus in a large house that was once a plantation. A reverend, Luther, makes it clear to Gayle that he disapproves of her situation and her promiscuity. Gayle makes it clear that she hates living in their house, as it is located in a very rural area and there is nothing to do. Gayle also has no shame about her sex drive, and openly complains about not being able to have sex with Troy.

Miss Auntie lectures Gayle about Jose, telling her that the baby is no one else’s responsibility and that Gayle is never to leave the house without him, because Miss Auntie will not babysit. Gayle is also told that she must contribute to the housework, which includes helping with Great, her great-grandmother, who is bedridden and dying in an upstairs bedroom. Gayle interacts with Cookie and quickly despises her, thinking that Cookie is a “goody-goody,” a virgin, and a well-behaved daughter. Cookie attempts to be friends with Gayle, but Gayle determines that she will find her way back to Queens and Troy as soon as she possibly can.

Cookie and Gayle begin spending time together through no choice of their own. Forced to go to church functions, Gayle finds herself hanging out with Cookie. The two girls go to the mall. Cookie tells Gayle that she is a virgin; Gayle is disbelieving. She asks Cookie if she has done certain things with a boy. Cookie tells her that she has only kissed a boy once and did not enjoy it. She tells Gayle that she intends to honor the church, remaining a virgin until she gets married. Gayle argues that Cookie doesn’t know what she’s talking about; once a boy who knows what he’s doing sexually meets her, she will sleep with him.



When Cookie meets Stacey and goes on a date with him, she does, indeed, find herself questioning her commitment to virginity. Instead of talking to the streetwise Gayle, however, she turns to her mother for advice. This shocks Gayle, who would never for a moment consider telling her own mother about her sex life. Obsessed with Stacey, Cookie pulls a stunt at church, showing off during a choir performance. This backfires, and Cookie’s parents punish her for her misbehavior. When Stacey comes to the house to see Cookie, Luther refuses to let him in because he disapproves of his daughter’s behavior since meeting him.

As Gayle begins to feel more comfortable in the house, she develops a grudging affection for her family. She helps Miss Auntie with the chores and accepts her responsibilities towards Jose as well. She also tends to Great, finding that she and her great-grandmother get along very well. Great begins to regale her with stories of her family history. Great tells Gayle that this history is her responsibility—she must pass it down to future generations just as Great has passed it to her. When Great dies, Gayle is much moved, realizing she takes this responsibility very seriously.

Before the funeral, Cookie asks Gayle to lie to cover for her so she can sneak away to see Stacey. Gayle agrees but discovers that Cookie’s plan is to have sex with Stacey. She confronts Cookie as her cousin tries to sneak off. Cookie is angry when Gayle tries to stop her, but, eventually, Gayle convinces her to let her “save” Cookie. Gayle walks Cookie back into the house, deciding she will save herself as well—by going back to school. Gayle decides to stay with Uncle Luther and Miss Auntie, and her mother and brother travel to Georgia to join them.