The House You Pass on the Way

A. Book Information

Woodson Jacqueline. 1997. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. ISBN 0-385-32189-9.

B. Plot Summary

“Her father had married a white woman… The only mixed-raced family in Sweet Gum, maybe in all of CalmuthCounty.” (p.5) Staggerlee had not always been called that, but after years of listening to her grandparents song she understood the lyrics,

Staggerlee said, “There ain’t no right or wrong.

There ain’t no white or black…”

Caught in a world that she does not seem to belong to, Staggerlee identifies with the man her grandparents had sung about. She doesn’t fit in with the white people or the black people, and on top of that she knows that she is gay. This is the story about a girl realizing herself, and looking ahead to what the future has in store.

C. Critical Analysis

In less than 100 pages the plot of this book examines some tough issues—what it is like to be of mixed race in a town that is not accustomed to such “intermingling” and Staggerlee’s personal knowledge that she has sexual feelings towards other girls. She knows these feelings must be kept inside, “No one ever told me I had to lie about it or had to keep quiet, but somehow I just knew.” (p. 81) Being the only interracial family in a town of mostly African-Americans would be hard enough to deal with, but Staggerlee has her sexuality to confront as well. Jacqueline Woodson has crafted this novel simply and beautifully with a hint of optimism that this young girl will find her way.

The setting of this book is in a rural, African-American community of which many of the members find Staggerlee’s quiet mother stuck-up and uppity. The young girl is often teased about her white mother and made to feel that she doesn’t belong among the other young girls, “Everyone knows your mama… My ma see her in town say she don’t hardly speak to people, all these years she been in Sweet Gum. Nobody needs y’all.” (p. 25)

This book includes cultural markers of the biracial Staggerlee. For example, when Woodson describes the young girl as she looks in the mirror, “Her lips were full across her face like Daddy’s.” (p. 15) We also hear her father’s casual speech among other Black men, “What y’all know good?” (p. 41)

Staggerlee’s first encounter with her sexuality started in sixth grade, “She had kissed a girl once… They had kissed after school one day, behind a patch of blue cornflowers.” (p. 22) It is not until her cousin, Trout, comes to visit from Maryland that Staggerlee is able to discuss her sexuality openly. Trout has been sent to the rural town of Sweet Gum to “become more lady-like.” Staggerlee finds solace and relief knowing that someone else has the same feelings. Later in the story Trout writes a letter telling Staggerlee of her new boyfriend and how nice it is to walk in public and not feel ashamed.

Staggerlee is a minority in more than one way, and yet Jacquline Woodson has expertly crafted the main character of this book so that the reader forgets her race and sexuality and finds her as a simply loveable character, tough and determined. Staggerlee is brave through and through—worthy of emulation, and undoubtedly branded on the hearts of readers everywhere.

D. Review Excerpts

From Publishers Weekly
The daughter of an interracial couple, 14-year-old Staggerlee is already an outsider when she wonders if she is gay, too. PW's starred review called this a "poignant tale of self-discovery" and praised Woodson's "graceful, poetic" prose. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) r
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9. In this understated story set in a small, mostly African-American community in the South, Staggerlee Canan is shunned by her peers because her mother is white. This is not the sole cause of her isolation, however. She has a secret. In sixth grade, she had kissed another girl. Rejected by that friend, Staggerlee has no one to talk to about her sexual feelings until her adopted cousin, Trout, visits for the summer when both girls are 14. Both wonder if they are gay, but sexual identity is really only one of the things that troubles them. Their platonic intimacy is the intense kind shared by friends who see themselves as different from the crowd. Asked by Trout to say whether she's black or white, Staggerlee replies, "I'm me. That's all." That they seem to be taking different paths in the end adds to the story's poignancy. This richly layered novel will be appreciated for its affecting look at the anxious wonderings of presexual teens, its portrait of a complex interracial family, and its snapshot of the emotionally wrenching but inarticulate adolescent search for self. It's notable both for its quality and for the out-of-the-way places it goes.?Claudia Morrow, Berkeley Public Library, CA

http://www.amazon.com/House-You-Pass-Way/dp/0142501913/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4518657-7306245?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183752855&sr=1-1

E. Connections

Other books for young people by Jacqueline Woodson.

· Sweet, Sweet Memory. ISBN 1423106806

· The Other Side. ISBN 0399231161

· Our Gracie Aunt. ISBN 0786806206