If You Come Softly

Starred review from September 28, 1998
Once again, Woodson (I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) handles delicate, even explosive subject matter with exceptional clarity, surety and depth. In this contemporary story about an interracial romance, she seems to slip effortlessly into the skins of both her main characters, Ellie, an upper-middle-class white girl who has just transferred to Percy, an elite New York City prep school, and Jeremiah, one of her few African American classmates, whose parents (a movie producer and a famous writer) have just separated. A prologue intimates heartbreak to come; thereafter, sequences alternate between Ellie's first-person narration and a third-person telling that focuses on Jeremiah. Both voices convincingly describe the couple's love-at-first-sight meeting and the gradual building of their trust. The intensity of their emotions will make hearts flutter, then ache as evidence mounts that Ellie's and Jeremiah's "perfect" love exists in a deeply flawed society. Even as Woodson's lyrical prose draws the audience into the tenderness of young love, her perceptive comments about race and racism will strike a chord with black readers and open the eyes of white readers ("Thing about white people," Jeremiah's father tells him, "they know what everybody else is, but they don't know they're white"). Knowing from the beginning that tragedy lies just around the corner doesn't soften the sharp impact of this wrenching book. Ages 10-up.

Miah, a black teen, is seeking to stand on his own, out of the shadow of his celebrity parents. He falls in love with Ellie, a white teen who is struggling to forgive her mother for leaving in the past. Together, they realize it may be difficult to find support from others, including those closest to them. Narrator Jorjeana Marie beautifully portrays Ellie's range of emotions as she falls in love for the first time and as she faces disappointment and uncertainty when her family disapproves of her new relationship. Narrator Guy Lockard creates a sensitive and determined voice as Miah describes his deep feelings for Ellie. Listeners will be captivated by this timeless love story full of obstacles and heartbreak. M.D. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine