Feathers is a Newbery Honor Book writen by Jacqueline
Woodson. It is a novel based on
symbolism, sibling relationship and rivalry, hope, change, and equality. There is the issue between black and white
because it is about the seventies. There
is a highway that divides the different races.
Frannie
the main character goes to Price Elementary which is all black
students and a new student comes in who is lighter skin the students call him
"Jesus Boy." Everyone picks on
him and he ends up getting in a fight but by the end “Jesus Boy” and Frannie
are good friends. You never learn his
real name, I kept reading thinking at the end you would know his name but you
never do. Frannie's brother Sean is deaf
so when he signs it is in italics in the book so you know he is talking. So the book talks about disabilities and how
to Frannie and her family it is not a disability they are all just
bilingual. Overall the book is about
hope and how it is everywhere and in all of us.
"Hope is a thing with feathers."
One thing I found interesting in this book was how much it
focused on religion and Jesus. The
students in Frannie's class think that "Jesus Boy" is literally Jesus
and that he chose to come to this school.
So I do not know how you could use this book in a public school. If you could I would because I like this book
and I think it has a great message and covers a lot of topics. It would be great for Social Studies since it
talks so much about segregation and equality and since it was based off of the
seventies. I could even teach sign
language to the students since it is such a main topic in the book. There are also a lot of different writing
activities in the book itself like writing a list of what all we have in common
and then sharing and going over it as a class.
A big thing that I would use in the book to teach would be equality and
treating each other how we want to be treated no matter what. Students can learn a lot from this book and
it can create a great classroom community.
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