If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

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Penguin

Annotation: After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.

Genre: [Love stories] [Realistic fiction]

Reviews: 0

Catalog Number: #159954

Format: Publisher's Hardcover

Publisher: Penguin

Edition Date: 2018 Release Date: 03/06/18

Pages: 181 pages

ISBN: 0-525-51548-8

ISBN 13: 978-0-525-51548-7

Dewey: Fic

LCCN: 97032212

Dimensions: 22 cm.

Subject Heading:
Interracial dating. Fiction.
African Americans. Fiction.
Family life. New York (State). New York. Fiction.
Schools. Fiction.
New York (N.Y.). Fiction.

Language: English

Reading Level: 4.0

Interest Level: 5-9

I couldn't stop looking at him, at his smile and his hair. I had never seen locks up close. His were thick and black and spiraling down over his shoulders. I wanted to touch them, to touch his face. I wanted to hear him say his name again. For a moment we stared at each other, neither of us saying anything. There was something familiar about him, something I had seen before. I blinked, embarrassed suddenly, and turned away from him.

Then Jeremiah rose and I rose.

"Well . . . good-bye. I guess . . . I guess I'll see you around," he said softly, looking at me a moment longer before turning away and heading down the hall, his locks bouncing gently against his shoulders.

"Jeremiah," I whispered to myself as I walked away from him. I could feel his name, settling around me, as though I was walking in a mist of it, of him, of Jeremiah.

Excerpted from If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Jacqueline Woodson
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

A lyrical story of star-crossed love perfect for readers of The Hate U Give, by National Ambassador for Children’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson--now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and including a new preface by the author

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he's in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he's going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don't exactly fit in there. So it's a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock, and after that they know they fit together--even though she's Jewish and he's black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that's not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way.

Jacqueline Woodson's work has been called “moving and resonant” (Wall Street Journal) and “gorgeous” (Vanity Fair). If You Come Softly is a powerful story of interracial love that leaves readers wondering "why" and "if only . . ."

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