if you come softly by jacqueline woodson

Jeremiah and Elisha bond from the moment they collide in the hall of their Manhattan prep school: He’s the only child of celebrity parents she’s the youngest by ten years in a large family. I am so excited to continue on in my Jacqueline Woodson journey.In a meditative interracial love story with a wrenching climactic twist, Woodson ( The House You Pass on the Way, 1997, etc.) offers an appealing pair of teenagers and plenty of intellectual grist, before ending her story with a senseless act of violence. I have read lots of books that write around this idea, but I really liked how Woodson managed it in this book. I thought this was such an interesting thematic choice to focus on so explicitly. I particularly loved the way Woodson wrote these characters conflicting desires to hold on to their childhoods and also to grow into their adult selves. Woodson was absolutely able to wreck my feelings. I cried so much while reading this book, I was worried I wasn't going to cry at about 80% of the way through the book, but I needn't have feared.

I went back and forth between the hardcover and the audiobook both experiences were top-notch. The language throughout this book absolutely enchanted me. She shows the internal and external hardships that come with being in an interracial relationship how the pair have to communicate to actually be able to continue their relationship. Woodson doesn't just show the pair when they are delighted with each other. The pair are so wrapped up with each other in such a delightful and all-encompassing way that is so realistically teenage. Woodson does an excellent job so showing the giddiness of young love and how enchanted people can be with each other. The relationship in this book is so tender and gentle.

We see them dealing with their family lives, figuring out how to be in an interracial relationship with all the judgment from outside their relationship, and just being giddy with first love. The pair are instantly drawn together, and as soon as proximity allows, they begin spending as much time together as they possibly can. Miah is a fifteen-year-old Black boy, his parents are going through a divorce, and his father is paying for him to switch to a private school.

It begins with Elisha, Ellie, a fifteen-year-old Jewish girl who is the last child left in her slightly tense family home she starts a new school and meets Jeremiah. If You Come Softly is a Romeo and Juliet-inspired book. Woodson has been one of those authors I knew I needed to read but just hadn't quite yet I am so glad I picked this book up on a whim. This was my first Jacqueline Woodson novel, and I am sure it will not be my last.

If you come softly by jacqueline woodson