Feathers

Woodson, Jacqueline. 2007. FEATHERS. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.ISBN 9780399239892

*Plot Summary

In the winter of 1971, a boy “who belongs across the highway with the other white people,” comes to Frannie’s school. She deals with her friends’ reactions to the new boy and with her mom’s feeling sick at home. Yet, Frannie finds hope in her life at school and her life at home.

*Critical Analysis

In her Newbery Honor Book, FEATHERS, Jacqueline Woodson creates many multi-dimensional, realistic characters. Readers come to understand the characters through a good balance of narration and dialogue. Frannie, the narrator and protagonist, tells the story of her family and school experiences. She is easily relatable in the way she explains her world and her interactions with the people around her. For example, she admires and has great respect for her friend Samantha, yet she resents Maribel, a classmate who acts like “she couldn’t believe we even had to share the same air.”

A new boy at school, Jesus Boy, is another example of a well-rounded character. At times he appears serene and calm - so much so that Samantha thinks maybe he is the real Jesus. However, he also gets angry with the school bully Trevor. Likewise, Frannie’s older brother Sean is a realistic character; he is good-looking, athletic, and hearing-impaired. In Sean, Woodson creates a character who is not defined by his differences.

Many cultural markers appear in Woodson’s depiction of the characters. Frannie describes the new boy’s “pale face,” Trevor’s light skin that turns the “prettiest copper brown” in summer, and her own “dark brown.” The clothes of the characters also convey culture as well as historical details; for example, Frannie’s classmate Rayray wears a t-shirt that says “Black is Beautiful” and has the Black Power fist. The language patterns of the characters also represent culture and history. As when Frannie explains to her grandmother why she calls a person cat, “That’s what you say. It’s the seventies! It’s jive talk.”

The plot of the novel is realistic and plausible. The appearance of Jesus Boy adds a bit of mystery to the story. The climax and resolution are easily identifiable. Although the resolution is hopeful, it is realistic and not “happily ever after.” For example, Mama’s unborn baby is healthy for now but a successful birth does not take place before the end of the story. The historical details of the 1970’s add to the story, but they do not overwhelm the plot. Cultural markers are also present in the plot – such as, much of the conflict involves race and a town divided by a highway and skin color.

FEATHERS is set in the 1971 and the setting is evident in the details of the characters and plot. Cultural markers and historical details work together to create a clear picture of Frannie’s town and school. For instance, when Frannie describes the different sides of the highway, she says, “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.” Other historical and cultural details include the references to the Vietnam War, the Michael Jackson spin, and Wilt Chamberlain. The style of dress also adds to the setting – Sean wears “a black turtleneck and his black peacoat, jeans and new boots.” Mama said he looks like “one of the Black Panthers.”

Themes of the novel include family, friendship, hopefulness, and judgment upon appearances. Woodson’s style is a combination of Frannie’s voice through first-person narration and dialogue, including Sean’s mode of communication which is sign language. The dialect of the time period and the cultures represented add to the style as well. At times, Woodson’s narration seems poetic. “…he walked into our classroom. Stepped through that door white and softly as the snow.”

* Response

I really enjoyed reading this book. Woodson creates such an authentic voice and narrator in Frannie that I was hooked on the story after the first few pages. I will definitely recommend this book to my students in the library.

*Review Excerpts

Woodson deftly weaves some large ideas through her story, but it's the small moments that linger profoundly.
Horn Book *Starred Review*

There's a lot going on in this small, fast-moving novel that introduces big issues--faith, class, color, prejudice, family, disability, and friendship. Woodson tells her story with immediacy and realism through the stirring first-person narrative of a young girl, Frannie, growing up in 1971… A good choice for discussion.
BookList

*Connections

-Conduct research regarding one of the historical figures or events mentioned in the novel. (Vietnam War, Black Panthers, Wilt Chamberlain, first landing on the moon, etc.)
-Read selected poetry by Emily Dickinson.
-Discuss the two sides of the highway. What do you think Jesus Boy’s life was like on the other side?
-Read Woodson’s LOCOMOTION. Discuss similarities and differences.
-Do a character study of Frannie.
-Write a journal entry about how the story would be different if Sean weren't hearing impaired.