Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

*Book overview from Barnes and Noble website*

A beautiful and moving novel from a three-time Newbery Honor-winning author

“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?

During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”

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Ah, Feathers. I don’t even know where to start. I freakin’ love this book. Jacqueline Woodson has a very creative take on civil rights and portrays it in a way that’s relatable to anyone. I think a child who could potentially pick up this book could read it and learn things without them feeling like it’s a history lesson.

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My favorite thing about Feathers is how there isn’t just one important/relatable character in the book. It’s all of them. I may relate to Frannie more while a child who has been actively bullied may relate to Jesus boy. I admit, even though some of the characters aren’t my favorite (I’m lookin’ at you, Maribel Tanks) they still play an important role in the storyline. I hate it when books solely focus on just one or two characters. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy learning the background of all of the characters in a story. In this book it’s extra important we learn about the backgrounds. Frannie quickly realizes how different everyone really is, and how you really can’t judge someone based off of your initial impressions of them. As the story unwinds, you discover who has more money and who’s still scraping by.

My rating:*****

~I love this book, it's versatile and fun to read. Any teacher could coordinate this with a lesson plan and be satisfied with the results.