"Feathers" by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson’s spare, beautiful novel bursts with powerful emotions of grief, love, hope, faith, and yearning.  As the title suggests, the plot and language of Feathers seem to float lightly for our consideration, giving the reader time to ponder and appreciate the strength and beauty of human connections and our shared hope for the future. 
This lovely, quiet coming-of-age story is set in the 1970s and references Vietnam and the Black Panther movement. Woodson delicately addresses weighty topics such as bullying, segregation, isolation, infant mortality, and religion.  The eleven-year-old African American protagonist, Frannie, lives in an insular and safe community separated by a highway from a white world of opportunity and privilege.  She lives in a loving home with her parents and an older brother who is deaf.  Frannie feels different from her peers not only because she communicates in sign within her family but also because they have suffered the death of one infant and the miscarriage of two other pregnancies.  In addition, a virulent case of chicken pox kept Frannie from entering this new school on time with her classmates one September and left her with a pox in the middle of each palm “like nail holes.”  She feels an enduring separation from most of her classmates.

When a new boy enters the classroom in the middle of the school year, Frannie empathizes with his isolation. She is discomfited by his caucasian appearance and his serene tone but when he spontaneously communicates with her using American Sign Language, Frannie feels a further connection to this unusual boy.  Why is a white boy living and going to school on this side of the highway?  Why does he not respond to taunts?  Some classmates wonder if this nameless boy might in fact be Jesus.  Frannie questions why she is so intrigued by him and must admit that she too wonders about whether Jesus would come back to a community like hers.

Woodson bookends her novel with an Emily Dickinson poem that has captivated Frannie.

“Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.”

Frannie wonders about the meaning of the metaphor eventually concluding, “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… Everywhere.”

I relished the quietness of the book.  "Snow coming down like feathers" provides the backdrop to the majority of the novel and seems to muffle the anxiety of school, home, and community.  Families embrace and then fall asleep in one another’s arms.  Music is enjoyed through vibration rather than sound.  Friends hold hands as they walk together to church.  I particularly enjoyed Woodson’s depictions of mundane household vignettes that illustrated the deep love and connection within the family.  The entire book seemed to read like a graceful poem.  My library copy is rife with sticky notes marking beautiful passages and pages that brought me to tears.

Jacqueline Woodson is the author of more than two dozen picture and young adult books.  She is a winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Miracle’s Boys and of two Newbery Honor Awards for Feathers and Show Way.  Although familiar with some of her picture books, I have been unaware of Woodson's young adult fiction.  After Feathers, I am now planning to read her other works.  My interest (like Frannie's) is definitely piqued.

On  her website, http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/, Woodson notes that she loves writing “because it makes me happy. Even when the words are slow in coming and the story seems all lopsided, writing keeps me happy.”  Her joy shines through in “Feathers.”  Even with its pervasive undercurrent of pain and worry, hope and optimism win out and I felt moved and positive.  While I am uncertain whether young adults can reap the full benefit of Woodson’s many themes, I am confident that late elementary and middle school students will relate to Frannie’s life and dilemmas.  Woodson’s novel rings true and her message is uplifting.