Customer Reviews

If You Come Softly (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've recommened this book for my students to read because I think it provides a love story woven together with much needed insights about race, racism, and personal relationships. Woodson writes about these issues critically without being preachy.

It would be a great to teach this work at the 7-9th grade level, for often students will miss the subtle points the author is making about race and racism.

I look forward to more books like this being written.

If You Come Softly has to be the best book I have ever read. I am a freshman in high school. I was the first person in my class to read it. This book really touched me. A lot of my friends say that they are in love but after reading this book they changed their minds. Miah and Ellie really LOVED each other. I don't think that I will ever find love like that. There is someone out there for everyone they just happened to be of a different race. I think this book should be required for freshman in high school to read. They would really enjoy it. I know I did!

I read about this book in an article. So i decided to check it out. Well i thought the book was so wonderful and enlighting. You got envolved with the characters and there story line. For all you who love tear-jerkers this book has it,but thats not what the book is about. It really opened my mind and made me see things a little different.No matter what race you are it will make u think a little different. The main theme is a girl whos white and jewish and a boy who black. They run with a momnet and end up falling in love. I think everyone will love this book.

Its hard to put it down once you get going. I really enjoyed reading this and i think u will too. It really touched me!

I thought that this book was exceptionally well-written. Ms. Woodson's shift between the first-person and third-person narrative allows the reader to more fully comprehend the story that she's telling. I thought that the two teen major characters were well drawn and sympathetic, and it broke my heart when it became clear what was about to happen. It is a novel that I hope will get us to think, once again, about the fictions that we live by in this country when it comes to race, and how ultimately, the human heart knows no color.

It is not about sexual abuse/rape. I don't think there's even a mention of it.

Anyway, I read this when I was about 13 and liked it a lot. It's about a white girl who falls in love with a black guy and how their friends and families have more of a negative reaction than they would expect. I guess it's kind of an "issue" book, but it is well-written and the relationship between the boy and the girl is sweet, believable, and unique. They're not stock characters who were just invented so the author could make a point.

I feel like I should mention, it doesn't have a happy ending.

I really liked this book. The point of view goes from author to Ellie, a white Jewish girl, girlfriend of a black boy. The only part i dodnt like was when we were about to read abot him meeting the parents it goes to his furnial. The book never says how he died, but i guess it is in the second book of that story.

I can't believe it. I picked up this novel after some silly english test and was just using it to pass the time during that class period. Well, i ended up falling in love with it. Swift, just like Ellie and Miah. Who would have guessed?

Ellie and Miah are High School sophmores going to Percy Academy together. When they literally collide into each other in the hall. cliche but it worked, quite well actually. They meet and have the sweetest romance ever. GOSH i wish i could find a guy willing to take me to the park and ask to kiss me. Then hold my hand...*sigh*

The author does an excellent job of portraying the prejudice that most of us have when we see an interracial couple walking hand-in-hand. But the prejudice doesnt stifle the love between Eliie and Miah, and that is more important and a stronger aspect of the book.

The end is tragic. I cannot and will not tell you, a potential reader, the outcome of the book. Needless to say that i cried, and when a novel can make someone cry, then it is definately worth the time it takes.

It took me 2 days to finish. Even if your a slow reader, it will not take long.

Please Read and Enjoy.

Yours Truly

If You Come Softly is an outstanding novel that Woodson delivers beautifully, and will leave you pondering a question when you near the conclusioin, as to why the world looks upon love and race so negatively. Many in the world feel that relationships need to stay in the race and no one should ever date outside the race. But isn't change good? Woodson delivers the topic of racial differences and love in a modest yet eye-opening manner.

Woodson depicts two characters Jeremiah and Elisha who are of a different ethnic background, but are drawn to each because of their love for one another.

As Jeremiah and Elisha struggle with the similarites and differences they are facing such as school,getting prepared for college, how to express their feelings for each other, and how to deal with what the world sees as "not appropiate" , they find out that despite their racial differences they are very much alike.

Jeremiah and Elisha discover they attend the same high school unwillingly, and find out that there is more to a person than just judging them from what they see on the outside, or by their color. Spending more time together initiates a relationship, and they fall in love. Now this is more than just your typical fairytail ending, the conclusion is what really takes your breath away and if you had to wipe a tear from your eye, join the club.

If You Come Softly goes beyond the notion of two teenagers falling in love with each other in high school, but expresses the emotional issues that they have to deal with digging deeper into what really goes on in a relationship. Woodson leaves you astounded and makes you ponder about the real issues facing todays society.

Do not hesitate to read this novel over and over again, and if this is your first time hearing of If You Come Softly, place this on your Winter or Summer reading list, because Woodson delivers this piece outstandingly!

The title of the book I read is If You Come Softly written by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is about a black teenager about fifteen who's father is a movie director and his mother is an author who is growing up in Brooklyn, New York. His parents enrolled him in a private school named Percy Academy where he literally bumps into a girl named Elisha or Ellie as she wants to be called who happens to be Jewish. Jeremiah helps her pick her books up and since that day they have been thinking about each other a lot.

Other major characters in the play are Ellie's mom who she calls Marion because she calls her Elisha, and her dad who she calls dad because he calls her Ellie. Also Ellie's sister who she loves talking on the phone to, kind of gets her thinking a little if she should tell her parents about Jeremiah because her sister was surprised when she tells her that he is black and Jeremiah's dad, who is always setting back the camping trip for five years and has company over his house every night talking about movies and such things that rich people talk about.

The setting is in Brooklyn, New York in the rich neighborhoods and in the poor neighborhoods where Jeremiah plays basketball at with his friend. The major events that happened in this book are when Ellie and Jeremiah were skipping class and they were walking through the park when an old lady asked Ellie if she was okay because she was with a black boy. It made Jeremiah angry because he walks past white women in the park that hold their purses tighter when he passes them.

I like this book because it shows that two very different people can fall in love. Also because it shows the way racist people do not like interracial relationships and the way Jeremiah and Ellie handled their situation with those type of people. I would recommend this book to someone who was afraid to say something to a girl he liked to help him realize there is nothing to be afraid of.

I chose to read "If You Come Softly" for a book for school, and I loved it. I like to read love stories and this book really kept my interest. It is about interracial dating with a black boy and a white girl. This story delt with discrimination against people of different races being together. It also delt with the hardships a couple must go through when they are being discriminated against.
I would recommend this book for teens who are interested in reading romance books ...