\u201cFeathers\u201d by Jacqueline Woodson addresses issues many middle-grade books do: fitting in, bullying and friendship.<\/p>\n
A main plot thread takes place mostly at school when a new boy who looks White joins the class. <\/p>\n
Interestingly, we never learn his name.<\/p>\n
The new boy is quiet and trying to fit in, but Trevor, the class bully, decides he is fresh meat.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The boy does not escalate, but he stands his ground. <\/p>\n
He asserts that he, too, is Black, though he appears White.<\/p>\n
The gossip is that his family tried to live on \u201cthe other side of the highway,\u201d but they didn\u2019t fit in.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s dad abandoned him for his family on the other side of the highway.<\/p>\n
Everyone, except this new kid, knows not to bring that topic up. <\/p>\n
But Trevor\u2019s reaction almost instantly changes the playground dynamic, de-fangs Trevor, and illustrates that, once done, it\u2019s shocking how little it takes to defeat a bully.<\/p>\n
Very satisfying!<\/p>\n
In addition to bullying and friendship, there are other topics that made this story stand out for me.<\/p>\n
They include:<\/p>\n
A glimpse into deaf culture, since the main character\u2019s brother, Sean, is deaf, and the family uses sign language.References to Emily Dickinson and her poem titled \u201cHope,\u201d 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\u2019s mother, who has had several miscarriages and one baby who died in her infancy, is pregnant again.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been learning sign language this year, and so I enjoyed that the story included many references to signing and the nature of being deaf.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
As soon as the family learned Sean was deaf, they all learned sign language, so Frannie is fluent.<\/p>\n
One scene I especially loved: Sean and Frannie have a game of describing how things sound, even though Sean can\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n
France describes it like this, \u201cOne 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, how does a word make you feel?<\/p>\n
Yellow sounds like bubbles feel \u2014 lots of them in a bathtub, says Frankie.<\/p>\n
Guitar music, Sean signs, sounds \u201clike rain, coming down real soft when it\u2019s warm out and you only get little wet but not cold. That kind of rain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frannie agrees, \u201c\u2026 that\u2019s exactly what it made me feel like when I heard a guitar playing softly.\u201d<\/p>\n
This passage and the ideas it expresses is just one of many examples of what a lyrical, beautiful writer Woodson is.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, at home, Frannie worries about her mom and whether she will have a successful pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Given their history, Frannie\u2019s parents address death in a very straightforward manner.<\/p>\n
For example, Frannie\u2019s dad sees she is worried and he tells her: \u201cHere\u2019s the deal \u2026 You don\u2019t need to worry about what happened before. All you need to look at is what\u2019s happening now. \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
That scene made me think this book might be very helpful for families or readers who might want to have discussions about death.<\/p>\n
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, \u201cI guess the writer was thinking about how light feathers are and they can just float everywhere. And I guess that\u2019s how hope is too \u2014 all light and everywhere like that. There\u2019s hope in this house. And at your church. \u2026Across the highway and on this side too. Everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
I feel like \u201cFeather\u201d gives young readers an introduction to poetry that makes it feel very accessible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of reasons to like this book!<\/p>\n
\u201cFeathers\u201d is a short book and, with Woodson\u2019s beautiful writing, a pleasure. This is one that will stay on my bookshelf forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFeathers\u201d by Jacqueline Woodson addresses issues many middle-grade books do: fitting in, bullying and friendship. A main plot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[69616,457,17730,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-166653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-arts-entertainment","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-daily_headlines","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}