Editorial Review
“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?
During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”
Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.
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Customer Reviews
Great Novel 
2008-09-30
I bought this for my son and I decided to read it first...I loved it. It was a great story and very well written. My son hasn't read it yet, but I would still recommend it.
Heartfelt story 
2008-09-24
Woodson, from a child's point of view, paints a poignant picture of an adolescent's personal search for hope, intermingling relationships and experiences of the characters' lives. Frannie's thoughts betray a maturity beyond her age. This novel is a realistic view into the heart of its characters. This beautiful, heartfelt story of hope addresses the needs of the new kid in school, those living on the "wrong side" of town, prejudices of racism, fear and sadness of loss in a family who has experienced death, pain and poverty, and the silent world of a deaf person. Feathers touches the soul of the reader who is seeking hope, looking for the goodness in others and contemplating that "maybe there's a little bit of Jesus inside of all of us."
Great Read-Aloud 2008-09-09
This is a great book to read to students in grades 5 & 6. It is all about how we should treat each other, regardless of color, and everyone needs to hear that. Many worthwhile discussions will follow.
Beautiful story 2008-08-12
I finished this yesterday morning--about 36 hours ago--and I've been thinking about it off and on since then. That's rare for me. Usually, I finish one book, then move right on to the next. But this beautiful novel stuck with me.
Frannie is a girl who's lost hope--she lives on the poor side of the highway, she's seen her mama suffer through miscarriages and now she's pregnant again, and she sees the way girls treat her brother when they find out he's deaf. Frannie's teacher reads an Emily Dickinson poem that starts "Hope is the thing with feathers..." to her class, which gets Frannie thinking about hope. Then a boy who looks like Jesus shows up as the new kid at school, and Frannie is forced to grapple with her own understanding of hope, faith, and religion. One of my favorite aspects of the story is how Frannie explores the idea of spirituality versus religion.
This would be a great book to read with your child because of all the interesting conversations you could have about the characters and what they go through.
Hooray for good kids! 2007-06-16
Feathers--fine strands intricately connected to make something soft and beautiful, shimmering and uplifting. The musical language and the deliciously real detail would be enough, but the soul of this story is Frannie. She's not smart or pretty or graceful. She's not particularly poetic. She's certainly not religious. But she's good. She looks past what's peculiar and prickly to find those basic human connections that help her to do the right thing. Thanks, Jacqueline Woodson, for introducing us to Frannie and that Jesus Boy. In them we can all find hope. Readers who like Feathers might also like Danger, Long Division, in which another good kid, age 11, develops new perspectives on mean kids, friendship and family.
Feathers and Hope 2007-06-01
“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?
During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”
Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.
