IGGIE'S HOUSE

This 1970 novel depicts historical attitudes about race relations that may surprise young listeners today. Eleven-year-old Winnie loses her best friend when Iggie moves to Tokyo. Winnie remembers playing in the tree house and the fun of being welcomed into Iggie’s cosmopolitan family. As Winnie eagerly waits for a new family to move in, she has no idea she’s about to lose her innocence. The new family—the Garbers—is black, an anomaly in her community. Emily Janice Card evokes a time of life, an era, and Winnie’s transformation from naiveté to social awareness to activism. Blume depicts common attitudes of the period through the characters Winnie encounters—the righteousness and racism of an adult bully, her mother’s subtle prejudice, and the sarcasm of young Herbie Garber, who challenges Winnie’s narrow life. Card portrays them all credibly. S.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2011]