Feathers

by Jacqueline Woodson
Hennepin County Library audioCDs 3 discs
narrated by Sisi Aisha Johnson
genre: realistic fiction, relationships

Woodson is one of my favorite authors, but I may need to re-read this short book. Frannie is a sixth grader during the 1970s. Her older brother Shawn is deaf. Her mother is pregnant again after suffering multiple miscarriages. Hope is the thread running throughout the story. Feathers are an analogy for hope. Samantha, the Jesus Boy, Trevor, Ray-Ray . . . all the children's lives have themes that bring them together. Lyrically beautiful . . . not sure how I would "sell" it to middle schoolers.