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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
This one was beautiful. Tragic, but beautiful.
This book was written in 1998. It was both ahead of it's time and sadly still current. Ellie is a 15 year old Jewish girl in NY. Her dad is a doctor and her mom stays at home. She's the youngest child by a long shot, so she's basically an only child. And she gets lonely sometimes.
Jeremiah or Miah is a 15 year old black man. His father is an Oscar nominated director and his mom has published 3 books. He is an only child. And he wishes for someone to talk to, someone who would just get him.
On their first day of school, they literally bump in to each other. It takes only a minute - him helping gather her books and telling her his name, and they both start falling.
They get looks when they're out together. An old lady in Central Park asks Ellie if she's ok. Ellie tells her sister about Miah and gets silence and then never tells her parents. Miah's mom embraces Ellie immediately but he never tells his dad.
It's a short read but beautiful. Ellie and Miah and true, unspoiled young love. But of course the ending is tragic.
I wish I could say these things only happened in the 90s. But we're currently watching a trial where the judge thinks it's ok to ban "Black Pastors" from the courtroom after a modern lynching. I really hope that one day Miah and Ellie's dream can come true and we can finally just see people instead of color.
This book was written in 1998. It was both ahead of it's time and sadly still current. Ellie is a 15 year old Jewish girl in NY. Her dad is a doctor and her mom stays at home. She's the youngest child by a long shot, so she's basically an only child. And she gets lonely sometimes.
Jeremiah or Miah is a 15 year old black man. His father is an Oscar nominated director and his mom has published 3 books. He is an only child. And he wishes for someone to talk to, someone who would just get him.
On their first day of school, they literally bump in to each other. It takes only a minute - him helping gather her books and telling her his name, and they both start falling.
They get looks when they're out together. An old lady in Central Park asks Ellie if she's ok. Ellie tells her sister about Miah and gets silence and then never tells her parents. Miah's mom embraces Ellie immediately but he never tells his dad.
It's a short read but beautiful. Ellie and Miah and true, unspoiled young love. But of course the ending is tragic.
I wish I could say these things only happened in the 90s. But we're currently watching a trial where the judge thinks it's ok to ban "Black Pastors" from the courtroom after a modern lynching. I really hope that one day Miah and Ellie's dream can come true and we can finally just see people instead of color.
4.5 only because the ending was so abrupt and heart crushing.... this book effectively discusses injustices that biracial couples face along with other aspects of racism. The flow of the book was lyrically stunning! I’d recommend getting a copy of the audio version of this book. I promise you will not regret it!
2/30 of 2019.
#31. Book recommended, but not written, by an author you love.
Also a Life's Library pick.
I knew going into it that this book would have a sad ending, and I think that sort of set me up for less of an impact? I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew something was going to happen. I was surprised that Miah's final chapter still got to me though (truth be told I don't really cry during books/movies); it was just heartbreaking reading him running and running and being so enamored with Ellie and their relationship, and then it's all stripped away from him just because of his skin color.
It's worse knowing that genuinely happens, today, in real life, despite that this book was published twenty years ago. There were definitely some bits in this book that made me miss my childhood, like having just one phone on a cord in the kitchen, but this still felt like a story that could have been told today. It feels both magical and sad that Woodson could capture this twenty years ago and it still speaks relevancy today.
I enjoyed the focus on each of Ellie and Miah's family lives too. To borrow from discussion in Life's Library, it felt important to understand their home life to better understand how they interacted with each other or why they felt how they did.
Overall, it's a pretty quick read, and enjoyable. It's a very quiet sort of story. Considering its title, that feels appropriate. :)
#31. Book recommended, but not written, by an author you love.
Also a Life's Library pick.
I knew going into it that this book would have a sad ending, and I think that sort of set me up for less of an impact? I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew something was going to happen. I was surprised that Miah's final chapter still got to me though (truth be told I don't really cry during books/movies); it was just heartbreaking reading him running and running and being so enamored with Ellie and their relationship, and then it's all stripped away from him just because of his skin color.
It's worse knowing that genuinely happens, today, in real life, despite that this book was published twenty years ago. There were definitely some bits in this book that made me miss my childhood, like having just one phone on a cord in the kitchen, but this still felt like a story that could have been told today. It feels both magical and sad that Woodson could capture this twenty years ago and it still speaks relevancy today.
I enjoyed the focus on each of Ellie and Miah's family lives too. To borrow from discussion in Life's Library, it felt important to understand their home life to better understand how they interacted with each other or why they felt how they did.
Overall, it's a pretty quick read, and enjoyable. It's a very quiet sort of story. Considering its title, that feels appropriate. :)
Beautiful and Informative. Emotional and joyous and heartfelt. The issues here are still present and I recommend this to all and all ages . Great story .
I tend not to have a lot of patience for stories about teenagers in love, but this one got me. Moving and upsetting.
It's hard to believe this was written 24 years ago! But as Jacqueline Woodson narrates in her introduction to the anniversary edition: this book became more and more relevant as the years went on.
It's a beautiful, short book, but the themes are rich. I especially appreciated that the complexities of family relationships and race/racism were more prominent than the love story. I don't think I normally like Romeo & Juliet retellings, but this one was so different, it was good!
It's a beautiful, short book, but the themes are rich. I especially appreciated that the complexities of family relationships and race/racism were more prominent than the love story. I don't think I normally like Romeo & Juliet retellings, but this one was so different, it was good!
This book is guaranteed to break your heart into a million pieces. It's just a beautiful and powerful book.
Oh. My. This book was beautiful. Powerful. And even though it was written 20 years ago, it is still relevant...
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK. BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN