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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIt is January 1971, and eleven-year-old Frannie lives on the Black side of a highway that divides her community from the white neighborhood across the road. Her world is full and familiar: her best friend Samantha, her deaf older brother Sean, her pregnant mother, and the Emily Dickinson poem her teacher recently read aloud about hope being "the thing with feathers." Then a pale, long-haired white boy walks into her sixth-grade classroom and everything shifts. He doesn't explain where he came from or why he crossed the highway to attend their school, and when he signs to Sean in the hallway, Frannie wonders who he really is. The kids start calling him the Jesus Boy, and Frannie finds herself caught between curiosity and skepticism as she tries to figure out what his arrival means.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Feathers
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Feathers. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a classmate pay for groceries with mostly pennies that smell like sweat?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
Maribel complains that the new boy paid for his hero sandwich and cupcakes with a giant pile of pennies, and that her mother got mad. Frannie defends him by pointing out that pennies are still money.
- First half
In what book does a mother say her dead baby is in the light pouring through a stained-glass window?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
Frannie's mama tells her about sitting in the small church after her first baby died and feeling the baby reach out to her in the colored light. The story is part of how the family carries the loss of Lila.
- First half
In what book does a father drive a moving truck to Indiana and bring home flowers on payday?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
Frannie's dad drives long-haul for Interstate Moving and walks in with lilies and roses. Sean even teases that flowers cost a lot in winter, so it must be payday.
- Second half
In what book does a grandmother tell a girl, "You be the one to remember"?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
Grandma reminds Frannie that everyone takes a turn being the different one. The line stays with Frannie all evening and comes back to her later when she watches the snow fall like feathers.
- Second half
In what book does a girl say hope is like yucky pigeons that are always all around?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
When the teacher first read the Emily Dickinson poem and asked the class why the poet wrote it, Frannie offered this comparison. Trevor said it might be because she wanted to fly like a feathered bird.
- Near the end
In what book does a girl write, "My brother taught me to speak"?
✓ Answer
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
When the teacher tells Frannie to begin at her own beginning, this is the first line she puts on the page. She remembers that the very first word she ever learned was the sign for now, taught by her deaf brother.
