If You Come Softly [Paperback]

Jacqueline Woodson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

Both Elisha (Ellie) and Jeremiah (Miah) attend Percy Academy, a private school where neither quite fits in. Ellie is wrestling with family demons, and Miah is one of the few African American students. The two of them find each other, and fall in love -- but they are hesitant to share their newfound happiness with their friends and families, who will not understand. At the end, life makes the brutal choice for them: Jeremiah is shot and killed, and Ellie now has to cope with the consequences..

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 the Hardcover edition.

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 the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0698118626
• ISBN-13: 978-0698118621
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,526,897 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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 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 - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Come Softly (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.

6 of 6 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 (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Come Softly (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!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If You Come Softly, July 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: If You Come Softly (Paperback)

The book If You Come Softly is a brillian work written by Jacqueline Woodson that tells a very unique story about an interracial frienship turned romance. The story is a modern day Romeo and Juliet. The main characters are fifteen year old Miah, a black boy and Ellie, a white girl. They are both new in a Manhattan prep school. They immediatly click and eventually fall in love. Society has a real problem with this issue, even more so than their own families. They receive strange stares and harsh glances while holding hands and kissing in public. They decide to stay together through all the negative feedback and lean on each other through many problems they face in their own lives. The characters develop emotionally with each new experience they have as a bi-racial couple. Just like Romeo and Juliet however, things don't end up well for the young couple.