The House You Pass on the Way
Publisher
Delacorte Press
Publication Year
1997
ISBN
9780385321891
Pages
99 pages
Genre
realism
Format
novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
When thirteen-year-old Staggerlee, the daughter of a racially mixed marriage, spends a summer with her cousin Trout, she begins to question her sexuality to Trout and catches a glimpse of her possible future self. Thirteen-year-old Staggerlee used to be called Evangeline, but she took on a fiercer name. She's always been different--set apart by the tragic deaths of her grandparents in an anti-civil rights bombing, by her parents' interracial marriage, and by her family's retreat from the world. This summer she has a new reason to feel set apart--her confused longing for her friend Hazel. When cousin Trout comes to stay, she gives Staggerlee a first glimpse of her possible future selves and the world beyond childhood.
Grade Level
9-12
Lexile Measure
HL690L
Diversity Topics
Racial Diversity; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Biracial; Interracial; Gay/Lesbian; biracial teenager; mixed race; interracial parents; interracial marriage
Main Character
female teenager
Race/Ethnicities
African American / White
Family Formation
mother and father
LGBTQ+
lesbian female
Awards
Lambda Literary Award, 1997, Winner, Children's (Young Adult Literature)
Best Children's Books of the Year, 1998 Nine & Up Today
Capitol Choices, 1997 Fourteen and Up
Kaleidoscope, A Multicultural Booklist for Grades K-8, Third Edition, 2001
Middle And Junior High School Library Catalog, Eighth Edition, 2000
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Ninth Edition, 2005
Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, Fiction
Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, 1997 Fiction
Senior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Fifteenth Edition, 1998
YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2006 GLBT
YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2014 GLBTQ: Books with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queerquestioning, Intersex, Asexual individuals, and Their Allies-Fiction
Keywords
cousins; coming of age; identity; friendship; civil rights; high school; confidence
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Woodson, Jacqueline, "The House You Pass on the Way" (1997). Diverse Families. 330.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/330