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48th out of 230 books
—
177 voters
Feathers
"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�is not white. Who is he?
During
...moreHardcover, 118 pages
Published
March 1st 2007
by Putnam Juvenile
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I had high hopes for this book, so my two stars may be more reflective of my disappointment than of the book's overall quality.
It's 1971 and Frannie lives with her Deaf brother, her often-absent (but loving) father, and her pregnant mom on the black side of the tracks. She worries a lot: about her mom, who has already lost babies to miscarriages, about her handsome brother, who's scorned by hearing girls, about her best friend, who's becoming increasingly religious, and about the new kid in her...more
It's 1971 and Frannie lives with her Deaf brother, her often-absent (but loving) father, and her pregnant mom on the black side of the tracks. She worries a lot: about her mom, who has already lost babies to miscarriages, about her handsome brother, who's scorned by hearing girls, about her best friend, who's becoming increasingly religious, and about the new kid in her...more
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I really enjoyed the language of this book. It features Frannie, her deaf brother Sean, her best friend Samantha, snooty Maribel, mean / light-skinned / troubled Trevor, and the new light-skinned (white?) kid in her class that they call Jesus Boy.
I had high hopes and it started out great. It sunk a little for me on p. 43 when Frannie thinks that if Jesus came back into the world, she would ask about... hope. Hope?
I know it's the theme of the book and the title came from a Dickinson metaphor, bu...more
I had high hopes and it started out great. It sunk a little for me on p. 43 when Frannie thinks that if Jesus came back into the world, she would ask about... hope. Hope?
I know it's the theme of the book and the title came from a Dickinson metaphor, bu...more
Hope is the thing with feathers...
Frannie's class is studying this poem and it's really gotten her thinking. She has a lot to hope for... She hopes that her mama won't lose the new baby growing inside her. She hopes that the hearing girls will stop making moves on her deaf brother only to turn away when they find out he can't hear.
Set in the winter of 1971 there's still a lot of segregation. All the white people live on one side of the highway and the black people live on the other side, Frannie...more
Frannie's class is studying this poem and it's really gotten her thinking. She has a lot to hope for... She hopes that her mama won't lose the new baby growing inside her. She hopes that the hearing girls will stop making moves on her deaf brother only to turn away when they find out he can't hear.
Set in the winter of 1971 there's still a lot of segregation. All the white people live on one side of the highway and the black people live on the other side, Frannie...more
This book is very good :) She worries a lot: about her mom, who has already lost babies to miscarriages, about her handsome brother, who's scorned by hearing girls, about her best friend, who's becoming increasingly religious, and about the new kid in her class, a white (maybe?) kid that all the other students call "Jesus Boy" because of his long hair and pale skin Its very hopeful and it can teach you a lot about how to not worry about so much little things and worry about the biggest things in...more
This book takes place in the 1970s although the time period doesn't play a huge role in the story. The book starts with an Emily Dickinson poem and returns to the theme "Hope is the thing with feathers," the first line in that poem. I liked this book and I guess it could win the Newbery but I personally wouldn't give it that award.
Frannie has a lot going on in her life, her brother is deaf and sometimes people make fun of him, her mom is pregnant but she has already lost three babies before, an...more
Frannie has a lot going on in her life, her brother is deaf and sometimes people make fun of him, her mom is pregnant but she has already lost three babies before, an...more
Mar 05, 2008
Kate Hastings
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Grades 5-8 realistic fiction
Shelves:
middle-school
A quiet book. Definitely artistic language. Frannie goes to school on the black side of town. Her older brother is deaf, and her best friend is a preacher's daughter. Frannie is worried about her mother, who has lost three children--one to premature death and two to miscarriage.
School is school. There is a bully and a snotty girl who thinks she's better than everyone. And then one day a white boy arrives at school. He's so different and peaceful. People start calling him Jesus Boy. Could he be?
W...more
School is school. There is a bully and a snotty girl who thinks she's better than everyone. And then one day a white boy arrives at school. He's so different and peaceful. People start calling him Jesus Boy. Could he be?
W...more
This is written like water, falling. It seems so perfectly effortless, and so beautiful. Frannie, at 11 and a half in 1971, is caught by the Emily Dickinson line, "Hope is the thing with feathers."
There's a new boy in Frannie's class. Her mother, who has lost a few babies, is pregnant again. Her adored older brother is handsome and smart and deaf. Her best friend wants her to believe in Jesus and be saved. Frannie's clear sweet voice takes this all in, and lets it out for us, a feather on the br...more
There's a new boy in Frannie's class. Her mother, who has lost a few babies, is pregnant again. Her adored older brother is handsome and smart and deaf. Her best friend wants her to believe in Jesus and be saved. Frannie's clear sweet voice takes this all in, and lets it out for us, a feather on the br...more
I finished this yesterday morning--about 36 hours ago--and I've been thinking about it off and on since then. That's rare for me. Usually, I finish one book, then move right on to the next. But this beautiful novel stuck with me.[return][return]Frannie is a girl who's lost hope--she lives on the poor side of the highway, she's seen her mama suffer through miscarriages and now she's pregnant again, and she sees the way girls treat her brother when they find out he's deaf. Frannie's teacher reads...more
a book written by jaquiline woodson and a winner of a newberry honor, hope is thing with feathers...that protects the soul...
this more youthful book touched my heart in many ways. it is a simple read that is a bit spiritual.
a new student arrives at middle school who the kids think looks like jesus; hence, they refer to him as 'jesus boy' throughout the entire book. he appears calm, cool and collected all the way through yet he comes from the other "whiter" side of the tracks. he looks white but...more
this more youthful book touched my heart in many ways. it is a simple read that is a bit spiritual.
a new student arrives at middle school who the kids think looks like jesus; hence, they refer to him as 'jesus boy' throughout the entire book. he appears calm, cool and collected all the way through yet he comes from the other "whiter" side of the tracks. he looks white but...more
JACQUELINE WOODSON
I actually liked this book. It wasn't very plot driven so not a lot happened, but it was very introspective. The narrator Frannie is a young black girl who lives a poor neighborhood of a big city. Her brother Sean is deaf and the story centers around her experience of trying to determine where hope comes from. Her world is disrupted when a white boy moves into their neighborhood. The kids begin calling him Jesus Boy and Frannie's best friend Samantha begins to think he really m...more
I actually liked this book. It wasn't very plot driven so not a lot happened, but it was very introspective. The narrator Frannie is a young black girl who lives a poor neighborhood of a big city. Her brother Sean is deaf and the story centers around her experience of trying to determine where hope comes from. Her world is disrupted when a white boy moves into their neighborhood. The kids begin calling him Jesus Boy and Frannie's best friend Samantha begins to think he really m...more
Glad to see there's literature out there, like Being near to Baby that explores the loss of a baby through the eyes of an older child.
"...some days, if it was raining or just real cloudy, I walked by and saw those flowers and those tiny little painted hands and it filled me with such an emptiness. some days, it felt like the times when I got to make handprints and flowers and stuff just slipped away from me before I even got a chance to figure out how much fun being a little kid was. Seems the m...more
"...some days, if it was raining or just real cloudy, I walked by and saw those flowers and those tiny little painted hands and it filled me with such an emptiness. some days, it felt like the times when I got to make handprints and flowers and stuff just slipped away from me before I even got a chance to figure out how much fun being a little kid was. Seems the m...more
From Emily Dickinson's poem, Hope is the Thing with Feathers," this is a story about hope. Frannie read that poem in school, but she doesn't think much about hope. In the winter of 1971, she's more interested in friends and hairstyles. (She wants an Afro, but her mom wants her to have braids.) Then a white boy moves into her all-black school, and everyone calls him the Jesus Boy. Suddenly Frannie sees that the way the kids look down on Jesus Boy for his color is like the way they look down on he...more
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson is an amazing book. It is one of those books that teaches you about life, but doesn't knock you over the head with the lessons.
Frannie is in sixth grade when a new boy moves in. Frannie knows what it is like to be the new kid, but it is even worse when you are the only white student in the school and happen to look like Jesus. The other students immediately pick on him and start calling him Jesus Boy. Frannie is fascinated and repelled by Jesus Boy. When he sign...more
JACQUELINE WOODSON
Feathers tells the slightly disjointed episodes of a sixth grade black girl's (Frannie's) life. She has to deal issues such as her older brother's blindness, and the way he is perceived, her mother's new pregnancy after some miscarriages, interactions with a bully in her class, and the new found religious fervor of her best friend. The episode that stood out the most to me is the white boy that comes to be in her class referred to as the "Jesus-boy" because of his hair. He ends...more
Feathers tells the slightly disjointed episodes of a sixth grade black girl's (Frannie's) life. She has to deal issues such as her older brother's blindness, and the way he is perceived, her mother's new pregnancy after some miscarriages, interactions with a bully in her class, and the new found religious fervor of her best friend. The episode that stood out the most to me is the white boy that comes to be in her class referred to as the "Jesus-boy" because of his hair. He ends...more
The book Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson is a heart grabbing novel about a sixth grade girl Frannie. This realistic Fiction story talks about Frannie overcoming growing up, her deaf brother, and the new kid that surprised them all. Frannie lives in a small town in NY and is stuck in overcoming the separation between black and white people during the 1970’s. The long highway that separates the black and white town seems to be forever there. When the white kid shows up at Frannie’s black school,...more
I really enjoyed this quick realistic fiction read by Jacqueline Woodson.
The premise is very interesting: Frannie, an African-American living in a black community, is surprised when a white boy joins their school. She discusses this issue and others for advice from her deaf brother.
I thought it was really interesting that Woodson used Emily Dickinson's poem that ends with the line, "Hope is a thing with feathers." However, the biggest motif is the snow as it falls: what dreams are in the snow,...more
The premise is very interesting: Frannie, an African-American living in a black community, is surprised when a white boy joins their school. She discusses this issue and others for advice from her deaf brother.
I thought it was really interesting that Woodson used Emily Dickinson's poem that ends with the line, "Hope is a thing with feathers." However, the biggest motif is the snow as it falls: what dreams are in the snow,...more
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I have to admit, I was biased against this book from the start. I wanted to read Hush, about the witness protection program, and couldn't because someone had it checked out from the library long after its due date. However, I think even without the bias I would have given this book just a three. It doesn't really have a strong plot: it is about a girl whose brother is deaf, whose mom is pregnant, and whose new classmate is a white kid who looks like Jesus (it's a predominantly black school). The...more
This is very much a feel-good novel. "Hope is the thing with feathers," is where the title comes from (a poem by Emily Dickinson). Nothing very exciting or monumental happens in the novel, it is certainly not as fast paced as "Shattering Glass," but I liked it for different reasons. The language in the book is very beautiful - I love the way Woodson words things, and her descriptions are very profound. This story is about a girl in sixth grade named Frannie and how she begins to see things diffe...more
Feathers is a beautiful depiction of a student with a disability who is included into mainstream society. Sean is deaf and must communicate using his hands, but he is included in school and in his community in a least restricted environment. This is illustrated well because he is not even the protagonist of the novel, and yet part of the surroundings of his little sister. She narrates the story, and he is a large part of her world. He is completely included to such a degree that young Frannie (...more
This book gets the title from an Emily Dickenson poem, "Hope is a thing with feathers." The book is about hope. It is narrated by Frannie, a young black girl who could use some hope in her life, although her life is not particularly bad. Her brother is deaf and gets made fun of pretty frequently. Her mother wants to have another baby, but the whole family is afraid of another miscarriage.
The a new boy comes to school. He is a white boy, so no one at school wants to accept him. Why is he coming...more
The a new boy comes to school. He is a white boy, so no one at school wants to accept him. Why is he coming...more
Jacqueline Woodson tells a beautiful tale of fitting into a world which seems made for everyone but you. The fictional tale covers racial segregation, religious differences, death, and school problems in the straight forward manner of children. Frannie, the youngest of 2, has an older brother who is Deaf. Though since she grew up speaking both the spoken word and signing that issue is not as personal to her as when one day the "Jesus Boy" comes into her 6th grade class room and changes the racia...more
This stunningly beautiful 2008 Newbery Honor award-winning book is just what great writing should be.
It is filled with wonderful images, crisp, clear words and a story line that resonates in the soul of anyone who receives, seeks or longs for hope.
Emily Dickinson's poem Hope is used as the springboard for the storyline.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all
While there are coming of age elements swirling on the canvas of...more
It is filled with wonderful images, crisp, clear words and a story line that resonates in the soul of anyone who receives, seeks or longs for hope.
Emily Dickinson's poem Hope is used as the springboard for the storyline.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all
While there are coming of age elements swirling on the canvas of...more
The year is 1971 a white boy is new to an African American urban school. Bully Trevor brings the obvious fact that the new boy is white to everyone's attention. For some reason, he knows sign language even though he himself isn't deaf. The boy gets the nickname "Jesus Boy." A preacher's daughter thinks that the boy really is Jesus and Frannie, her friend and the story's protagonist, hopes that the boy is Jesus. Frannie feels a sort of kinship with the boy because she rememembers being a stranger...more
Genre: Drama/Racism/Hope/Religion
I was surprised to find this novel so involved in religious themes, but was not unsettled by its' didactic nature. Woodson tells the story of eleven year old Frannie who lives on the "other side" of the highway, in a community that is unabashedly not white. When a new white boy comes to school one day, Frannie begins thinking in new ways and change comes as a result. I thought the issue of racism was addressed very appropriately and I enjoyed having the perspecti...more
I was surprised to find this novel so involved in religious themes, but was not unsettled by its' didactic nature. Woodson tells the story of eleven year old Frannie who lives on the "other side" of the highway, in a community that is unabashedly not white. When a new white boy comes to school one day, Frannie begins thinking in new ways and change comes as a result. I thought the issue of racism was addressed very appropriately and I enjoyed having the perspecti...more
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson is about a girl living in the 1970s. In Frannie's world there are two sides of the highway: the side full of rich people {mostly white} and the side full of poor people {mostly black}. Her deaf brother Sean is always talking about building a bridge so people can cross the highways.
One day a new kid shows up at school. Everyone is surprised because he is white. But when people tell him that he replies that he is not white. When someone retorts that he looks like J...more
One day a new kid shows up at school. Everyone is surprised because he is white. But when people tell him that he replies that he is not white. When someone retorts that he looks like J...more
This book takes its title from the Emily Dickinson line, “Hope is the thing with feathers…” The novel is aimed at 5-6th grade readers, with a protagonist who is 11, but the novel’s texture and style seem quite advanced. Set in the early 1970’s, the novel centers on a “white” boy who moves into an all black school in a racially divided Southern town, and the reaction of the female narrator, her two friends, and the class bully and his henchman to this boy, whose long, flowing hair, white skin, an...more
This is a nice tale about a young black lady growing up in the early 70's. Our protagonist, Frannie, has a deaf older brother and her family has dealt with tragedy consistently. Her mother has had two miscarriages and one baby, Lila, died when she was a month old. We follow Frannie through church, her school and home life.
Frannie is interested in a new boy in her class, the only white boy in the school. The kids at school call him Jesus Boy. Frannie is surprised that he knows sign language, when...more
Frannie is interested in a new boy in her class, the only white boy in the school. The kids at school call him Jesus Boy. Frannie is surprised that he knows sign language, when...more
Feathers is a beautifully written, poetic story told in first person of a young black girl's search to understand the world she lives in. It is 1971, and a white, long-haired boy moves to Franny's side of town. He doesn't fit in, and says he did not fit in on the white side of town either. Franny's friend calls him Jesus. Everyone either scorns him or leaves him alone. Fanny's teacher reads the class a poem: "Hope is the thing with feathers." Perhaps the 70's is the thing with feathers, Franny d...more
JACQUELINE WOODSON
Frannie's sixth grade world gets complicated when a kid from the white side of town comes to school and everyone begins to call him Jesus Boy. Her best friend, Samantha, thinks he might just be the real Jesus come to give hope to folks, but mixed-race Trevor, the class bully, disagrees. Should she accept and befriend him? Things are just as unsettled at home, when Frannie's mother announces that she's pregnant, a dangerous prospect as two previous miscarriages and the the death...more
Frannie's sixth grade world gets complicated when a kid from the white side of town comes to school and everyone begins to call him Jesus Boy. Her best friend, Samantha, thinks he might just be the real Jesus come to give hope to folks, but mixed-race Trevor, the class bully, disagrees. Should she accept and befriend him? Things are just as unsettled at home, when Frannie's mother announces that she's pregnant, a dangerous prospect as two previous miscarriages and the the death...more
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I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories a...more
More about Jacqueline Woodson...
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories a...more
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