If you come softly

By Jacqueline Woodson. New York: Putnam’s, 1998.

v Notable / Best Books (American Library Association)

Fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is black and his parents are separated, meets Ellie, who is white, of Jewish heritage and whose mother has twice abandoned her, at an exclusive private school. It’s love at first sight, as they learn they have to accept a little “rain” in their relationship facing people’s negative reactions. She won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2001 for Miracle’s Boys.

Author Jacqueline Woodson was born in Ohio, but grew up in South Carolina and in Brooklyn, New York, where she still lives. She writes wonderful books with characters from a variety of ethnic groups and social classes, who often are facing difficult feelings of being different and out of place. Her message to readers is “"no matter who you are in the world, it's okay to be who you

are."

Pre-reading activity:

Discuss different kinds of prejudice: racial, economic, religious, etc…

Explain the book deals with some of these issues.

Discuss how poetry is referenced several times in the book.

Assign students a research task to find a short poem they admire in the library stacks, or online, to share with the class after reading the book.

After-reading activity:

Let students put on a “Poetry Coffee House”, where they share their selections.

Have cookies and coffee available.