Customer Reviews

Feathers

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In January of 1971, eleven-year-old Frannie lives contentedly with her parents and deaf older brother, Sean, in an apartment on the "wrong" side of the highway. "There weren't white people on this side of the highway.
You didn't notice until one appeared. And then you saw all the brown and light brown everywhere." Suddenly, a tall, skinny white boy with long hair appears in Frannie's sixth-grade class. His classmates decide that he looks like the pictures of Jesus and start calling him the "Jesus Boy." Frannie's best friend Samantha, whose father is a "fire-and brimstone" preacher according to Frannie's mother, seems especially
taken with the "Jesus Boy, " and begins to fantasize that he might be Jesus returned to earth. While the "Jesus Boy" must stand up to enormous bullying from his male classmates, which Frannie deplores, she
becomes quite interested in him and is mystified that he knows how to "sign," which is how she communicates with her beloved brother.


In this excellent, slice-of life story, the author explores, through Frannie's eyes, many facets of growing up.The likable Frannie learns to deal with religious ideas, racism, the meaning of friendship, familial love, and plain old - but never simple - milk of human kindness.

Feathers--fine strands intricately connected to make something soft and beautiful, shimmering and uplifting. The musical language and the deliciously real detail would be enough, but the soul of this story is Frannie. She's not smart or pretty or graceful. She's not particularly poetic. She's certainly not religious. But she's good. She looks past what's peculiar and prickly to find those basic human connections that help her to do the right thing. Thanks, Jacqueline Woodson, for introducing us to Frannie and that Jesus Boy. In them we can all find hope. Readers who like Feathers might also like Danger, Long Division, in which another good kid, age 11, develops new perspectives on mean kids, friendship and family.

As a middle school reading teacher, I'm always looking for good books my kids would like. This book was a quick read, but failed to capture my attention at any point. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. I put it in my student library rather than offering it as a lit. circle choice because I just didn't find it interesting. I'm actually quite surprised it won any kind of award. I think the author could have spent more time developing the story and the characters. I didn't have enough information or time getting to know the characters to care about them. I think there are much better books out there for young readers.

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.

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 an Emily Dickinson poem that starts "Hope is the thing with feathers..." to her class, which gets Frannie thinking about hope. Then a boy who looks like Jesus shows up as the new kid at school, and Frannie is forced to grapple with her own understanding of hope, faith, and religion. One of my favorite aspects of the story is how Frannie explores the idea of spirituality versus religion.

This would be a great book to read with your child because of all the interesting conversations you could have about the characters and what they go through.

My 4th grade class was completely riveted each day that I read this novel to them. I decided to use it as the Beginning of the Year Read Aloud and I am so happy that I did. It was inspiring and my students could totally relate to the characters. I personally think it is one of my favorite children's novels and it's very heartwarming to see that it has more rave reviews than negative reviews!! I think it's all about who reads it, how it's read, and what you interpret. Jacqueline Woodson is by far not writing on a one dimensional level. We have to teach our students to read beneath the surface and really dissect literature to get at the real meanings and goals the writer has. This was quite enjoyable for all of us!

This book was somewhat different than Woodson's usual books. It seemed more hopeful and optimistic. It's 1971, Frannie is 11 years old and a new boy transfers into her class. He is the only white boy in a class of black students. The kids think that he is Jesus. Frannie has a deaf brother named Sean. I think that Sean is a positive role model for disabled people. He is a positive, strong character. This book would be a good read aloud for upper elementary grades and a good independent read for middle school students.

I like some of the subjects presented-an interracially-adopted child trying to fit in, with his race or his parents'; new kids in school; adding a baby to a family; disabilities, etc. But I found the story very disjointed. Some of the themes were not developed well-probably because there were too many themes and conflicts.

Some of the conclusions the narrator comes too are false, and the author doesn't set her straight before the end of the novel. That makes me nervous about my kids reading it without me.

There are a few references to the time period, but not enough to make it feel like a period novel. As the mother of an adopted child of a different race from me, and the aunt of mixed children, I don't see the same fitting in issues today that this book describes. I see so many mixed kids running around, that it's just not an issue anymore in the kids' lives. Thus, I think it would be better if the book emphasized this story was in the past.

I do give the author points for flipping the situation around, and making it a white kid trying to fit into a black school. That makes the reader think a bit more than if it was the usual story of a minority kid trying to fit into a white school.

And I don't get what the poem means. The book references it a few times, but never explains it in a way I understand!

I bought this for my son and I decided to read it first...I loved it. It was a great story and very well written. My son hasn't read it yet, but I would still recommend it.

Woodson, from a child's point of view, paints a poignant picture of an adolescent's personal search for hope, intermingling relationships and experiences of the characters' lives. Frannie's thoughts betray a maturity beyond her age. This novel is a realistic view into the heart of its characters. This beautiful, heartfelt story of hope addresses the needs of the new kid in school, those living on the "wrong side" of town, prejudices of racism, fear and sadness of loss in a family who has experienced death, pain and poverty, and the silent world of a deaf person. Feathers touches the soul of the reader who is seeking hope, looking for the goodness in others and contemplating that "maybe there's a little bit of Jesus inside of all of us."

This is a great book to read to students in grades 5 & 6. It is all about how we should treat each other, regardless of color, and everyone needs to hear that. Many worthwhile discussions will follow.