If You Come Softly

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Novel for ages 10 and up

5 out of 5 stars

A white girl and a black girl discover what it means to fall in love, even if it means doing what the whole world seems to not want them to do.

If You Come Softly is a phenomenal book. It touches upon the real life issues of diversity in our world and the unfortunate consequences that can often result from it in the form of a love story. Most teenagers, girls especially, would enjoy this book because of the fact that it is a romance novel, so they are drawn to read it from an aesthetic stance. What they will come to learn as they read is that they are also reading from the efferent stance because they are gaining information about real life issues and how to deal with them. The way that If You Come Softly can be read from both stances represents Lousie Rosenblatt’s theory of transaction, where she claims that books are not read just for information or just for enjoyment, but that they are read on a continuum between the two stances. This theory of transaction, where both the reader and the book bring something to the table, is easily shown through this book. While reading this story, I connected with the text on an emotional level. This was especially true when Miah, the black boy, is killed. I have experienced death of family members as well as friends and all of those feelings came rushing back as I read about the feelings of Ellie, the white girl. I connected with the characters. I also learned a new perspective on what it would be like to live in New York and date a black man, as a white girl. My past experiences and my prior knowledge made the book as moving as it was for me. Other people would definitely enjoy this book, but probably in not the exact same way that I did. This idea is exactly what Louise Rosenblatt is conveying in her transactional theory.

I would definitely want to read this book with a group of students, but unfortunately I do not know if I would read it with 10 year olds. Ages 10 and up is what the book cover says the age level is for this book, but I think I would only read this book with middle school upper level readers or high school lower level readers due to the heavy content in this book. Because of the fact that the main characters in this story are high school students, and the fact that this story could actually happen, I do not think it would be appropriate for any elementary school student to read. But if I were to read this with my students, I would not make them do any activities while reading the story, just discuss the book. Often times, students will automatically be turned away from a book because of the fact that they have to read it for school and do homework. This would take away a lot of the meaning in If You Come Softly. The main discussions of this book would revolve around the issues of diversity in our society. If I could find an appropriate group of students to read this book with, I would love to use it in my classroom.