If You Come Softly [Paperback]

Jacqueline Woodson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 7, 2010

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he's in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he's going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don't exactly fit in there. So it's a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock and after that they know they fit together -- even though she's Jewish and he's black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that's not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way. Reviewers have called Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson's work "exceptional" (Publishers Weekly) and "wrenchingly honest" (School Library Journal), and have said "it offers a perspective on racism and elitism rarely found in fiction for this age group" (Publishers Weekly). In If You Come Softly, she delivers a powerful story of interracial love that leaves readers wondering "why" and "if only...."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once again, Woodson (I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) handles delicate, even explosive subject matter with exceptional clarity, surety and depth. In this contemporary story about an interracial romance, she seems to slip effortlessly into the skins of both her main characters, Ellie, an upper-middle-class white girl who has just transferred to Percy, an elite New York City prep school, and Jeremiah, one of her few African American classmates, whose parents (a movie producer and a famous writer) have just separated. A prologue intimates heartbreak to come; thereafter, sequences alternate between Ellie's first-person narration and a third-person telling that focuses on Jeremiah. Both voices convincingly describe the couple's love-at-first-sight meeting and the gradual building of their trust. The intensity of their emotions will make hearts flutter, then ache as evidence mounts that Ellie's and Jeremiah's "perfect" love exists in a deeply flawed society. Even as Woodson's lyrical prose draws the audience into the tenderness of young love, her perceptive comments about race and racism will strike a chord with black readers and open the eyes of white readers ("Thing about white people," Jeremiah's father tells him, "they know what everybody else is, but they don't know they're white"). Knowing from the beginning that tragedy lies just around the corner doesn't soften the sharp impact of this wrenching book. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-Two 15 year olds, Jeremiah (Miah) who is black, and Elisha (Ellie) who is white, meet during their first year at an exclusive New York prep school and fall in love. Both teens are also dealing with difficult family situations. Miah's father has left his mother for another woman, and Ellie is trying to fight through her feelings about her mother, who twice abandoned her family for extended periods. The teenagers must also deal with the subtle and not-so-subtle bigotry that they are subject to as a mixed-race couple. Miah and Ellie go about working through their problems, both individually and together, and their relationship continues to blossom, giving readers a shared sense of contentment. Thus, the tragic climax will leave them stunned. Woodson's lyrical narrative tells the story through alternating voices, Ellie's in the first person and Miah's in the third. This fine author once again shows her gift for penning a novel that will ring true with young adults as it makes subtle comments on social situations.
Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (January 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142415227
• ISBN-13: 978-0142415221
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacqueline Woodson's awards include 3 Newbery Honors, a Coretta Scott King Award and 3 Coretta Scott King Honors, 2 National Book Awards, a Margaret A. Edwards Award and an ALAN Award -- both for Lifetime Achievement in YA Literature. She is the author of more than 2 dozen books for children and young adults and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to issues of race and relationships November 21, 1999

By Bakari Chavanu

Format:Hardcover

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Book To Ever Make Me Cry October 5, 2000

By brittany

Format:Paperback

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!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Ending March 21, 2007

By A. Luciano VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

On her very first day at the prestigious Percy Academy, Ellie bumps into another student and drops her books all over the floor. As the two of them scramble to pick them up, Ellie feels a special connection with this boy--Miah. He feels it, too, and hopes to see her again.

When Ellie and Miah end up in the same history class a month later, their feelings haven't changed. They begin to fall deeper and deeper into a relationship, and they realize that they seem to be meant for each other. Ellie and Miah are in love.

The problem with their love is the fact that Ellie is white and Miah is black. When they walk down the street together, they get dirty looks from people. Old women ask Ellie if she's okay. Everywhere are people who think they shouldn't be together. And Ellie is worried that her family may consist of people like that, people who only see Miah as black, rather than as a boy she loves.

I loved both Ellie and Miah. They were strong characters, secure in themselves and willing to stick by each other. I liked that Miah is not a black stereotype, and I liked the complexity of Ellie's relationship with her mother. However, the ending of this book ruined it for me. It allowed the author to get off the hook, to escape from explaining the ways Ellie and Miah would handle their relationship. The ending was a lousy choice to make.