Feathers
Jacqueline Woodson
Putnam Juvenile (March 1, 2007)
SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains plot points that you may not want to know about before reading the book.
In short: A wonderfully poetic and hopeful novel skillfully describing a young girl’s struggles with faith, disability and prejudice. Discussion of the theological issues raised is definitely appropriate after reading.
Sixth grader Frannie wrestles with the meaning of a line from an Emily Dickinson poem.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune – without the words,
And never stops at all.”
When a white student joins her all black class, Trevor, the class bully, dubs him “Jesus boy”, because of his long hair and pale skin. His calm demeanor and gentle language lead Frannie’s best friend, Samantha, to believe he may indeed be a savior.
“What if that boy really is Jesus? What if Jesus did come here, to where we live?”
“Jesus who?”
“Jesus-Jesus, that’s who. God’s son. Think about it Frannie. In the Bible, He just showed up and then miracles started happening – people started rising up from the dead and eating bread that was His body and drinking wine that was His blood and –“
Helping Frannie deal with the issues at school is a loving home, filled with her hopeful mother, gentle father and her deaf brother, Sean.
“The sign for believe flashed into my head – the way Sean signed it – his pointer finger against the side of his head like he’s saying “think,” then his hands coming together – like the sign for marry. I stood there thinking, for the first time, about how perfect that word was – to have a thought in your head and then to marry it, to take it into your heart forever…”
Set in a turbulent era of integration and war this novel discusses serious issues of prejudice, faith and disability in a thoughtful and respectful way.
“If Jesus came back to this world – I don’t know what I’d want from him. I know what I’d ask, though. I’d say, “Mr. Jesus, I’m sorry to bother you but I have a question. I wanted to know how do you have hope?” I’d want to know how do you have hope when there’s always a Trevor somewhere kicking at somebody. When there’s always a mama somewhere who maybe wasn’t thriving.”
“Don’t you want to be saved, Frannie,” Samantha finally asked me.
“You always ask me that and I always say no because you can’t even tell me what I’d want to be saved from.”
“Yes – I do. I tell you if you get saved, you don’t have to worry after you die.”
“Yeah, Samantha, but that doesn’t make any sense to me because once I die, I’ll be done and I won’t be worrying anyway.”
By effectively weaving in the music and events of that time it skillfully paints a realistic background while still describing a typical middle school experience.
“I tried to find the word surreal in my mental vocabulary bank where Ms. Johnson had said we should save vocabulary words so that we could grow up and have rich brains, but it wasn’t there. Ms. Johnson said the only way you can deposit a word in your bank is by committing it to memory. I hadn’t deposited surreal. I guess I must have spent it somewhere.”
Despite questionable theological observations,
“Aren’t we all God’s children?” Samantha said quietly. She looked around the room, taking us all in. “Each of you,” she said, “is a true child of God.” She turned to the Jesus Boy. “Maybe some are truer than others.”
“Maybe there’s a little bit of Jesus inside of all of us. Maybe Jesus is just that something good or something sad or something…something that stays with us an makes us do stuff like help Trevor up even though he’s busy cursing us out. Or maybe…maybe Jesus is just that thing you had when the Jesus Boy first got here, Samantha. Maybe Jesus is the hope that you were feeling.”
this is a soft and hopeful novel.
Jacqueline Woodson
Putnam Juvenile (March 1, 2007)
SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains plot points that you may not want to know about before reading the book.
In short: A wonderfully poetic and hopeful novel skillfully describing a young girl’s struggles with faith, disability and prejudice. Discussion of the theological issues raised is definitely appropriate after reading.
Sixth grader Frannie wrestles with the meaning of a line from an Emily Dickinson poem.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune – without the words,
And never stops at all.”
When a white student joins her all black class, Trevor, the class bully, dubs him “Jesus boy”, because of his long hair and pale skin. His calm demeanor and gentle language lead Frannie’s best friend, Samantha, to believe he may indeed be a savior.
“What if that boy really is Jesus? What if Jesus did come here, to where we live?”
“Jesus who?”
“Jesus-Jesus, that’s who. God’s son. Think about it Frannie. In the Bible, He just showed up and then miracles started happening – people started rising up from the dead and eating bread that was His body and drinking wine that was His blood and –“
Helping Frannie deal with the issues at school is a loving home, filled with her hopeful mother, gentle father and her deaf brother, Sean.
“The sign for believe flashed into my head – the way Sean signed it – his pointer finger against the side of his head like he’s saying “think,” then his hands coming together – like the sign for marry. I stood there thinking, for the first time, about how perfect that word was – to have a thought in your head and then to marry it, to take it into your heart forever…”
Set in a turbulent era of integration and war this novel discusses serious issues of prejudice, faith and disability in a thoughtful and respectful way.
“If Jesus came back to this world – I don’t know what I’d want from him. I know what I’d ask, though. I’d say, “Mr. Jesus, I’m sorry to bother you but I have a question. I wanted to know how do you have hope?” I’d want to know how do you have hope when there’s always a Trevor somewhere kicking at somebody. When there’s always a mama somewhere who maybe wasn’t thriving.”
“Don’t you want to be saved, Frannie,” Samantha finally asked me.
“You always ask me that and I always say no because you can’t even tell me what I’d want to be saved from.”
“Yes – I do. I tell you if you get saved, you don’t have to worry after you die.”
“Yeah, Samantha, but that doesn’t make any sense to me because once I die, I’ll be done and I won’t be worrying anyway.”
By effectively weaving in the music and events of that time it skillfully paints a realistic background while still describing a typical middle school experience.
“I tried to find the word surreal in my mental vocabulary bank where Ms. Johnson had said we should save vocabulary words so that we could grow up and have rich brains, but it wasn’t there. Ms. Johnson said the only way you can deposit a word in your bank is by committing it to memory. I hadn’t deposited surreal. I guess I must have spent it somewhere.”
Despite questionable theological observations,
“Aren’t we all God’s children?” Samantha said quietly. She looked around the room, taking us all in. “Each of you,” she said, “is a true child of God.” She turned to the Jesus Boy. “Maybe some are truer than others.”
“Maybe there’s a little bit of Jesus inside of all of us. Maybe Jesus is just that something good or something sad or something…something that stays with us an makes us do stuff like help Trevor up even though he’s busy cursing us out. Or maybe…maybe Jesus is just that thing you had when the Jesus Boy first got here, Samantha. Maybe Jesus is the hope that you were feeling.”
this is a soft and hopeful novel.
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