I could tell you what Feathers by Jaqueline Woodson is about, or maybe I couldn’t. If I could tell you I don’t know that I would want to. A plot summary would give you the wrong idea. It might lead you to think you understand the book, when you still have no idea. Feathers almost says so many things, but in the end tells you nothing. It changes a good reader without speaking.
A white boy in a black classroom? A lesser author could say a lot here. A deaf boy among the hearing? Again much could be said. And Woodson almost says something, but then trails off as if she’s been distracted.
Woodson’s writing style bonds with the characters and the tone of the book. She melds environment, personality, and tone together. She starts the book this way and follows through page after page:
His coming into our classroom that morning was the only new thing. Everything else was the same way it’d always been. The snow coming down. Ms. Johnson looking out the window, then after a moment, nodding. The class cheering because she was going to let us go out into the school yard at lunchtime.
It had been that way for days and days.
And then, just before the lunch bell rang, he walked into our classroom.
Stepped through that door white and softly as the snow.
Yes, things happen because a white boy is in a black school, but Woodson redirects the obvious to Jesus. The new boy is called Jesus Boy by his classmates. Perhaps this is due to his long hair and the fact that he cries in class once. Jesus Wept. Yet, once again Woodson speaks about something, religion, without telling you anything. She uses the pock marks in Franny’s palms delightfully, no preaching. The presence of Jesus Boy leads to a theme on faith. Woodson skillfully weaves a relationship between Franny and her religious best friend, Samantha. The cause of loss of faith in one leads to a strengthening of faith in the other.
“Strange,” Samantha said. “How one day you can believe in something. And the next day you don’t anymore.” She shivered. There was a hole in one of her mittens. When she saw me looking she put her hand in her pocket.
“And then, when you don’t have that thing to believe in anymore, you don’t have anything.”
This may sound nihilistic. It isn’t.
The magic of Woodson’s Feathers comes in the relationships she creates. They are gentle, unforced, and as genuine as a natural pearl. The relationships all touch Franny like overlapping bubbles. Each bubble has its own color and hue. One of the most satisfying relationships, although it’s hard to choose, is Franny and her handsome, deaf brother, Sean. Woodson uses descriptions of sign language as a form of color and music, of smell and emotion. The first words Franny used as an infant were words her brother taught her. The interweaving of sign language among spoken dialogue makes the language in this book three dimensional. It’s beautiful.
We’re having chickennnnnnn, we’re having chickennnnn, I signed, moving my hand slowly at the end of the word chicken and doing a little dance. Sean’s smile got a little bigger.
Feathers is not plot driven, although there is a timeline of events to follow. Feathers’ power comes from Woodson’s ability to create living scenes from seemingly trivial moments. There’s Jesus Boy’s entrance to the class; walking home through gray winter days with her friend; laying in an afternoon darkened room next to her mother; and many more. Woodson seems to believe that life happens between the big momentous events when we can’t avoid ourselves. One of the most memorable scenes in the book is a chapter describing Franny and Sean making dinner. The chicken is frying. The rice is being seasoned. Mom is resting in the bedroom. Dad comes home from his trip. It is snowing outside. Trivial, meaningful things are said. It’s family life at its truest and most meaningful.
Woodson’s Feathers is a short book, categorized for children, but there isn’t an “adult” book anywhere with more beauty and truth in it.
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These books by Tory Anderson are now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format:
