Woodson, Jacqueline. Behind you.WOODSON, Jacqueline. Behind you. Penguin penguin, originally the common name for the now extinct great auk of the N Atlantic and now used (since the 19th cent.) for the unrelated antarctic diving birds. Putnam. 176p. c2004. 0-399-23988-X. $15.99. J In If You Come Softly (an ALA Best Book for YAs, reviewed in KLIATT in January 1999). Woodson sensitively chronicles Chronicles, two books of the Bible, originally a single work in the Hebrew canon (the final book of that canon), called First and Second Chronicles in the Authorized Version, and called First and Second Paralipomenon in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate. the relationship between Ellie, a white girl, and Jeremiah, an African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. boy, who fall in love and must deal with family issues and racism. Tragedy strikes when Jeremiah, running home through Central Park, is mistaken for a criminal and accidentally shot to death by police. Behind You picks up the story after Jeremiah's death, with his spirit looking down on those he loved. In alternating chapters, Jeremiah, his parents, his grandmother. his friends, and Ellie express their feelings about his death, grieve grieve v. grieved, griev·ing, grieves v.tr. 1. To cause to be sorrowful; distress: It grieves me to see you in such pain. 2. , make new connections, and try to move on while keeping his memory alive. Love and sadness permeate permeate /per·me·ate/ (-at?) 1. to penetrate or pass through, as through a filter. 2. the constituents of a solution or suspension that pass through a filter. per·me·ate v. the pages of this brief, beautifully written novel, but there is a feeling of hope at the end. For all those who were moved by If You Come Softly, this will supply a lovely coda. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT |
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