Iggie's House is a 1970

1970 in literature

The year 1970 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Deliverance by American poet James Dickey published...

 young adult

Young adult literature

Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Judy Blume

Judy Blume

Judy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...

. The story concerns Winnie, whose best friend Iggie has moved away. The new family moving into Iggie's house are the first African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s in the neighborhood. While Winnie is quick to make friends with the new kids, she realizes that some people, possibly including her own parents, have trouble seeing past a person's color.

Plot summary

Winnie Barringer misses her best friend Iggie, whose family has moved to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. She is fascinated that a black family, the Garbers, have moved into Iggie's old house. She soon becomes friends with the three kids.

Another neighbor, Mrs. Landon, organizes a petition

Petition

A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....

 to pressure the Garbers into moving. Much to Winnie's distress, her parents seem ambivalent on the issue, though they do not sign the petition. Mrs. Landon later nails a harassing sign to the Garbers' lawn.

Winnie creates a questionnaire

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case...

 to determine community members' attitudes about blacks, hoping to raise support for the Garbers. She has an argument with the Garber kids, however, who accuse her of befriending them only because she thinks having black friends is cool. The Garber parents are seriously considering moving.

Mrs. Landon visits Winnie's parents again. She not only complains about Winnie's questionnaire, but also announces that she will be moving away and tries to pressure the Barringers to move. Mr. Barringer flatly refuses, and in the ensuing argument Winnie confronts Mrs. Landon about her racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

.

The next morning, Winnie discovers that her parents really are considering moving. She decides that if they do, she will become a stowaway

Stowaway

A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....

 and go to live with Iggie in Japan. But soon she makes up with the Garbers, and finds that neither they nor her parents have ultimately decided to move.

Characters

• Winnie (Winifred) – a tomboy
  Tomboy
  A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
  
  about to start sixth grade, protagonist
• Mr. and Mrs. Barringer – Winnie's parents
• Glenn, Herbie, and Tina Garber – African-American siblings who have just moved in
• Mrs. Landon – a neighbor who does not want black people living in the neighborhood
• Clarice – Mrs. Landon's prissy daughter, whom Winnie despises

External links

• Judy Blume's website