The Tillerman Cycle is a series of children's novels by the author Cynthia Voigt

Cynthia Voigt

Cynthia Voigt is an American author of books for young adults dealing with various topics such as adventure, mystery, racism and child abuse. Her first book in the Tillerman family series, Homecoming, was nominated for several international prizes and made into a 1996 film...

. Currently there are seven titles in the series.

Note on reading order

The only book to have a definite reading order is the first, Homecoming (first), as the narratives of the other books overlap each other as per the needs of the stories of each protagonist. Dicey's Song, A Solitary Blue, and Come a Stranger are the most interlocked and can be read in any order following Homecoming and before Sons from Afar and Seventeen Against the Dealer. The Runner is a standalone novel and the events in it take place about ten years before Homecoming.

1. Homecoming
   Homecoming (novel)
   Homecoming is a young adult novel by American children's author Cynthia Voigt. It is the first of seven novels in the Tillerman Cycle. It was adapted into a for-TV film.-Plot introduction:...
   
   (1981)
2. Dicey's Song
   Dicey's Song
   Dicey's Song is a novel by Cynthia Voigt. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1983.-Plot:Picking up where Homecoming left off, Dicey Tillerman and her three siblings, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, are now living with their widowed grandmother Abigail Tillerman,...
   
   (1982)
3. A Solitary Blue
   A Solitary Blue
   A Solitary Blue is a novel by Cynthia Voigt. It was a Newbery Honor book in 1984. It takes place before, during and after the events described in Dicey's Song, Voigt's 1983 Newbery Medal winner and Come a Stranger...
   
   (1983)
4. The Runner (1985)
5. Come a Stranger (1986)
6. Sons from Afar
   Sons from Afar
   Sons From Afar is the sixth book in Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Cycle, the series of novels dealing with Dicey Tillerman's family which also includes Homecoming, Dicey's Song , The Runner, A Solitary Blue, Come A Stranger, and Seventeen Against the Dealer.- Plot summary :With Dicey and her friends...
   
   (1987)
7. Seventeen Against the Dealer
   Seventeen Against the Dealer
   Seventeen Against the Dealer is a young adult novel by American children's author Cynthia Voigt. It is the last of seven novels in the Tillerman Cycle.-Plot summary:Seventeen Against the Dealer is the final novel in the seven-part Tillerman Cycle...
   
   (1989)

Dicey Tillerman

Dicey is the central character of three of the novels: Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and Seventeen Against the Dealer. She is the eldest of the four Tillerman children. She is an individual, a loner, and unflinchingly honest with herself and everyone else. She was born somewhere between 1965–1968 to single mother, Liza Tillerman, and her wayward lover Francis Verricker in Provincetown, Massachusetts, US.

As her mother was mentally unstable for most of their childhood, Dicey acted in a parenting role from a very young age, as is clear even at the beginning of Homecoming. Dicey has an abrupt manner and uncompromising world view which earns her few friends, but those she has are worthwhile: Mina Smiths and Jeff Greene.

James Tillerman

James Tillerman is the next eldest child. At ten, he is a thinker rather than a doer, and a natural loner. He loves books and learning, and likes to think out the answers to difficult questions. James did well academically but did not have any friends at school. He respects those whom he believes are intelligent, sometimes without questioning their morals. When he falls and hurts his head during an overnight stay in a park, he pretends to be more injured than he really is so that the family can stay a few more days in the company of teenage runaways Lou and Edie, because he believes Lou is smart, even though Lou is a thief and a nihilist. When Sammy starts to emulate Lou by stealing food for the family, James supports his act, quoting Lou by saying that everyone must look out for himself and the only certainty in life is death. Later in the novel, James steals money himself and only listens to the rational explanations of Stewart, the student from whom he stole.

Maybeth Tillerman

In her early life, Maybeth was kept back a year in school. She was bashful, displaying this with a distrustful personality and was frightened of strangers. Her teachers thought she was slow, and had the inability to perform simple math tasks or read. She is a gifted singer. Dicey and James think she inherited Momma's mental illnesses. In Dicey's Song, Maybeth begins piano lessons from Mr. Lingerle. She also becomes less bashful at school and makes friends, but struggles to keep up with them in the classroom. This leads to Dicey, Gram, and James taching Maybeth how to read. In Sons from Afar, Maybeth has aged to fourteen, and begins to appear like her mother. As in the past, she struggles in all classes except home economics. She appears to have large talent in sewing and cooking. James assists her with homework. She doesn't mind working hard for low grades. In the final book, Seventeen Against the Dealer, Maybeth is sixteen years old, yet still struggling in school. She is popular and beautiful, which leads to the fear of Maybeth doing what her mother did: running away with an older man.

Sammy Tillerman

Has a young boy, Sammy had a fiery temper and was constantly fistfighting because of being taunted about his 'insane' mother, lack of father, and mentally slow sister. He faces the most challenge in accepting his mother's catatonic state. He'd rather do physical work over schoolwork. He is stubborn and demanding, but can be 'recklessly happy.' In the next book, Sammy quiets down and wants to make a fresh start. Sammy starts fighting with a boy named Ernie over games of marbles. Gram comes to Sammy's recess and beats all the kids at marbles. In Sons from Afar, he becomes mentally independent, doing whatever he wants regardless of what others thing or how it will impact them. Many kids at school look up to him, including girls (who he thinks are annoying). He embarks on a journey with James to find their father, but to no avail. James and he vow to protect Maybeth from hurtful men. In the final book, Seventeen Against the Dealer, Sammy is a hard working person (physically) and pumps gas part-time. He has the ability to take apart cars and helps buy the Tillermans their first car. He is also a talented tennis player.

Wilhelmina "Mina" Smiths

Mina is the daughter of Reverend Amos Smiths and nurse and history buff Mrs Smiths. She is the fourth of five children all named after kings and queens from European history. She is African-American. She is extremely intelligent and perceptive, as well as being a talented dancer and singer. She is popular at school and Dicey's best friend.

Abigail "Gram" Tillerman

Abigail is the Tillerman children's maternal grandmother. Her maiden name is Hackett and she was the younger by many years of two sisters. Her elder sister Cilla married and moved north, having one daughter, Eunice who makes an appearance in Homecoming.

Abigail married John Tillerman, who was apparently much coveted by others as a young man. They had three children: John, Liza and Samuel. John Senior was an intelligent auto-didact who ruled his house overbearingly and eventually drove all three of his children away, which causes Abigail some guilt. When her grandchildren appear on her doorstep at the end of Homecoming she takes them on as their legal guardian.

Samuel "Bullet" Tillerman

Bullet is the main character of The Runner and does not appear in any others, although he looms large in Come a Stranger and to a lesser extent in Dicey's Song and Sons from Afar. He is Gram's youngest son and the children's uncle. He was a very talented cross country runner, winning points for Crisfield High School at track and field meets in the mid-1960s. He is fiercely independent, has no patience for others' weakness, is physically strong, and unflinchingly honest with himself. He is actively uninterested in connecting with other people unless he judges them worthy, which is not often.

Maintaining control over his own destiny is high on Bullet's priority list, so rather than wait to be drafted, Bullet enlists to go to the Vietnam War on his eighteenth birthday and is killed a little over a year later.

Tamer Shipp

Tamer is a main character in The Runner and Come a Stranger. In the first, he is a classmate of Bullet's and runs cross country with him. In the Second, it is ten years later and he is a Reverend and father of four.

Reverend Amos Smiths

Mina's father, Reverend Smiths features in Come a Stranger and Sons from Afar. Although a deeply spiritual and religious man, he does not push religion on his children.

Mrs Smiths

Mrs Smiths appears in Come a Stranger as Mina's tough, caring, intelligent, insightful mother.

Isaac Lingerle

Mr Lingerle is Maybeth Tillerman's piano teacher. He becomes like an extra member of the Tillerman family. He appears first in Dicey's Song and then in Sons from Afar.

Professor Horace Greene

The Professor is Jeff's father and a main character in A Solitary Blue. He is an introverted man who is heartbroken over his wife's leaving him when Jeff is seven. As a consequence, the Professor becomes very closed off, even to Jeff.

Brother Thomas

Brother Thomas is a good friend of Professor Greene's. They meet at the college in Baltimore where they both work.

Millie Tydings

Millie runs a grocery store in downtown Crisfield. She has been a friend of Gram's their whole lives and employs Dicey to help out at the store. Millie is a skilled butcher and a good friend to the Tillermans, although she is intellectually slow.

Recurring minor characters

• Liza Tillerman
• Melody Greene
• Miss Eversleigh
• Mr Chappelle