Another version of Romeo and Juliet, with a tragic ending. White Jewish girl and black ball player find love and happiness. I like this one -- really well done.

If you come softly is the story of love that develops between Ellie, a white Jewish girl and Jeremiah, a black boy from a black neighborhood in Brooklyn. Ellie is the last of her siblings to live with her upper class parents in an apartment overlooking Central Park. Jeremiah’s father is a well-established filmmaker, while his mother is a successful writer. Jerimiah’s parents are divorced. Ellie’s mother has abandoned the family and returned on two different occasions. Jeremiah and Ellie meet at a private school named Percy Academy. As the two teenagers fall in love, they must face the way people react toward and interracial couple. There two worlds come together as they try to understand prejudices. The novel ends with a tragic accident caused by racial injustice.

Critique: If you come softly appeals to the needs of young adults. Jacqueline Woodson developed realistic characters and placed them in realistic situations. Her honesty to people’s reactions to the color of people’s skin was woven into a teenage love story. The novel followed the characteristics of multicultural fiction. The characters were from different backgrounds and family structures. The novel’s school and home setting s followed the “close to home” characteristic. The everyday issues of love and family problems also followed the characteristics of a multicultural fiction. In addition, serious issues and realism was found throughout the novel.

Elisha (Ellie) and Jeramiah (Miah) attend the same fancy prep school. They are both new to the school, and they literally bump into each other. They are instantly attracted to each other. Though their lives are outwardly very different, they are very much alike on the inside.

Ellie is white and her parents are still together, but no longer in love. Ellie has several older brothers and sisters who have all moved away from home. Miah is black, the only child of a celebrity couple who has recently divorced. Both feel misunderstood and out of place at home, but find understanding in each other.

Miah and Ellie quickly start spending all of their free time together and their relationship blossoms. Though no one says anything directly to the couple, their peers (and random strangers) stare and talk about them. Miah finally introduces Ellie to his mother. Just when Ellie gathers the courage to tell her parents about Miah, tragedy strikes.

The story is told with grace and Woodson gives us lots to think about. The ending was beautiful and sad. Though it was well-done, I was a bit disappointed, if only because I wanted something more for Miah and Ellie. ( )

This beautiful book for Young Adults is about star-crossed first love between a black boy, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah (“Miah”), and a white girl of the same age, Ellie, who meet at Percy Prep School in New York City. In spite of coming from relatively privileged backgrounds, both kids are basically lonely until they find each other.

As their relationship blossoms, they put up with a steady stream of stares and obscene remarks. They talk about it, and decide they will treat it like rain:

"Miah: Let’s say it’s rain – the people who got problems with us being together – let’s call them and their problems rain.

Ellie nodded. “Okay, they’re rain.” She smiled. “So now what?”

Miah: “So it’s not always raining, is it? But when it’s not raining, we know the rain isn’t gone forever.”

Ellie sighed. “Well a drought would be a beautiful thing.”

But in the story, it just rains harder, until one day, the downpour doesn’t stop.

Evaluation: Get the Kleenex ready and read this book. Issues of black and white, of divorce and infidelity, even of gay and straight, are touched upon in this book, with sensitivity, realism, and love. Highly recommended. ( )

If You Come Softly is so skillfully written and has such exquisite plot complexity it’s hard to believe it has RL 6. But it does, and maybe that’s what makes it flow so beautifully. The shift between narrators Jeremiah and Elisha is unforced and extremely effective; both characters are richly developed, as are the sympathetic supporting characters of the parents. The two young lovers are achingly familiar and sympathetic, and their interracial dilemma is thoughtfully explored instead of exploited. Even though there is foreshadowing aplenty of the tragic ending, the reader keeps hoping and rooting for these star-crossed lovers, and when the tragically poetic climax transpires, the catharsis the reader experiences is the stuff of Greek tragedy. ( )