“Feathers” by Jacqueline Woodson addresses issues many middle-grade books do: fitting in, bullying and friendship.
A main plot thread takes place mostly at school when a new boy who looks White joins the class.
Interestingly, we never learn his name.
The new boy is quiet and trying to fit in, but Trevor, the class bully, decides he is fresh meat.
This majority Black community is divided from a more affluent White one by a highway, and Trevor teases the new boy about being White and not welcome.
The boy does not escalate, but he stands his ground.
He asserts that he, too, is Black, though he appears White.
The gossip is that his family tried to live on “the other side of the highway,” but they didn’t fit in.
We learn later why that might be, but meanwhile, we see a boy who is used to being picked on but has a strong inner core.
The boy, in fact, completely disarms Trevor one day by wondering out loud if the reason Trevor is so mad is because the new boy has a dad and Trevor’s dad abandoned him for his family on the other side of the highway.
Everyone, except this new kid, knows not to bring that topic up.
But Trevor’s reaction almost instantly changes the playground dynamic, de-fangs Trevor, and illustrates that, once done, it’s shocking how little it takes to defeat a bully.
Very satisfying!
In addition to bullying and friendship, there are other topics that made this story stand out for me.
They include:
A glimpse into deaf culture, since the main character’s brother, Sean, is deaf, and the family uses sign language.References to Emily Dickinson and her poem titled “Hope,” which compares hope to a feather and serves as a touchstone for the main character, Frannie, throughout the story.A very real concern about death, because Frannie’s mother, who has had several miscarriages and one baby who died in her infancy, is pregnant again.
I’ve been learning sign language this year, and so I enjoyed that the story included many references to signing and the nature of being deaf.
The relationship between Frannie and Sean is very satisfying. They are sometimes at odds, as siblings often are, but also have a very close relationship.
As soon as the family learned Sean was deaf, they all learned sign language, so Frannie is fluent.
One scene I especially loved: Sean and Frannie have a game of describing how things sound, even though Sean can’t hear.
France describes it like this, “One person gave the word and the other person had to describe it, to make the person feel it someplace inside of themselves. To make the person hear it.”
In other words, how does a word make you feel?
Yellow sounds like bubbles feel — lots of them in a bathtub, says Frankie.
Guitar music, Sean signs, sounds “like rain, coming down real soft when it’s warm out and you only get little wet but not cold. That kind of rain.”
Frannie agrees, “… that’s exactly what it made me feel like when I heard a guitar playing softly.”
This passage and the ideas it expresses is just one of many examples of what a lyrical, beautiful writer Woodson is.
Meanwhile, at home, Frannie worries about her mom and whether she will have a successful pregnancy.
Given their history, Frannie’s parents address death in a very straightforward manner.
For example, Frannie’s dad sees she is worried and he tells her: “Here’s the deal … You don’t need to worry about what happened before. All you need to look at is what’s happening now. … And be happy about it. And if it means you only get to be happy for month or two months or three months, so what. A month or two months or three months is a good long time.”
That scene made me think this book might be very helpful for families or readers who might want to have discussions about death.
Throughout the book, Frannie ponders a poem she read in school about hope being like a feather. At one point, she muses to her mom, “I guess the writer was thinking about how light feathers are and they can just float everywhere. And I guess that’s how hope is too — all light and everywhere like that. There’s hope in this house. And at your church. …Across the highway and on this side too. Everywhere.”
I feel like “Feather” gives young readers an introduction to poetry that makes it feel very accessible.
That’s a lot of reasons to like this book!
“Feathers” is a short book and, with Woodson’s beautiful writing, a pleasure. This is one that will stay on my bookshelf forever.