Hush by Jacqueline Woodson
Reading Hush by Jacqueline Woodson further confirms to me that she is one of my favorite authors. I think that some authors are storytellers but not good writers. Others may be good writers but not good storytellers. And it’s a beautiful thing when an author is both a talented storyteller and a writer. Woodson is certainly both. Her books are a pure delight and joy to read because her writing is so simply beautifully crafted. I found myself rereading certain lines over again.
Hush is the story of Toswiah. Toswiah has a nice life. In fact, a great life. Her family is great, her best friend is great, school is great, she loves the mountains of Denver and her father loves his job as a cop. But everything changes when her father witnesses the murder of a black boy from two white police officers. Loyalty is the most important thing in the agency but when he considers testifying against the men, his family is put at risk. So much so, that they have to leave in the middle of the night and join the Witness Protection Program.
No longer twelve-year-old Toswiah from Colorado, she is Evie from San Francisco. Her father spirals into a deep depression, her mother is overcome with religion, and her sister is making plans to leave for school the first moment she can. Hush is a coming of age story but how does one come of age when you are suddenly forced to reinvent yourself? To leave everything behind – your entire identity and look to the future when you can no longer speak of the past?
I appreciated this quote from Woodson from a Reading Rants interview:
A lot of what Hush, the book about the witness protection program, the big question is, when someone takes your name away, who do you become? If I woke up tomorrow and I couldn’t be Jacqueline Woodson, what would that mean? How would I begin to re-identify myself?
I ask the same question about myself. What if I was no longer Natasha Maw? How would I reinvent myself? And if this had happened to me when I was twelve, instead of thirty, how would that have changed me? Would I have splintered off into somebody completely different? And what happens when permanence is taken away? When you are no longer defined by even the possessions, momentos, and even family photos that you had in the past?
In Evie’s/Toswiah’s own words: “Does it matter what I am, if I’m not anyone?!”
Beautiful book. Highly recommended.
I read Hush as part of Banned Books Week in which I’m reading and reviewing a challenged or banned book a day. Hush was on the Challenged Children’s Books compiled by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. However, my internet searches of why it’s been challenged have turned up empty. There was one instance of a friend calling her sister retarded and then went on to explain mentally challenged. It might be a stretch but this is the only thing that I can even think of of why it could have been challenged. Nothing else sticks out to me at all.
Links of interest: Jacqueline Woodson website, More book blogger reviews of Hush. Other Woodson books reviewed by Maw Books: I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This, Show Way, Feathers, If You Come Softly, Behind You, Peace Locomotion, Locomotion, and Miracle’s Boys. My experience meeting Woodson at LA Times Festival of Books.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile. January 7, 2002.
Hardcover, 192 pages. ISBN: 0399231145
Hush is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
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Category: Book Reviews, Fiction, Young Adult
Tags: banned, E-H Title, U-Z Author
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I’m so interested to read this review because my book When I Was Joe (due to be published in the UK January 2010 and the US autumn 2010) is also about witness protection. As far as I know witness protection is much better organised in the US then in Britain, here it’s a relatively new concept and only a few police forces have dedicated witness protection units. But it is becoming more common as, sadly, witness intimidation grows.
on September 27th, 2009 at 1:48 amI thought taking on a new identity was an interesitng metaphor for being a teenager – when your identity changes and is challenged all the time anyway. I’m going to have to try and get my hands on Jacqueline Woodson’s book – she’s not a name I’ve heard of in the UK.
I love the idea of the banned books week, what a great idea and how sad that books are being banned from schools and libraries. Why don’t people trust children to read and judge and discuss books?
Of all things to ban, I don’t understand why this one would be on the list! Thanks to you, I just checked out “I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This”, which I will read soon. I’ll be interested if this one is as easy to find.
on September 27th, 2009 at 3:33 amI love this author. I read a couple of her books in a multicultural children’s lit class a few years ago. I loved them! I’ll have to check out this book.
on September 27th, 2009 at 5:50 amI just saw her at the National Book Festival yesterday. I only caught the end of her speech because we were coming over from Kadir Nelson’s presentation, but man, her tent was JAMMED!
I’ve only read Feathers by her and didn’t LOVE it, but I’ll try something else by her.
on September 27th, 2009 at 6:53 amI can’t imagine having to reinvent yourself at 12 when you haven’t even become who you are going to be. This sounds like a good read!
on September 27th, 2009 at 10:09 amKeren – Oh do read this one. Woodson is a Newbery author, so I think she’s pretty popular over here. And yes, having banned books week in the first place is sad. Honestly, I wouldn’t trust all children to be able to judge for themselves but I think that from a young age that parents need to help them make those judgements so they can then make them on their own later. But having somebody else’s parent saying that my child can’t read a book, is something else entirely.
Sandy – Seriously. I had to think long and hard to just come up with that one example.
Janssen – You want to NBF too!!!!!! Sigh . . . So sad, I wasn’t there. I met Woodson at LA Festival of Books and she was simply amazing. Feathers was the first book that I ever read from Woodson and my review says that I didn’t love it either. Fortunately, she’s only gone up from there and she’s officially an author to geek out over.
Kathleen – Exactly! It’s a fantastic book and definitely a good read.
on September 27th, 2009 at 12:26 pmSounds like another great one! I’ve turned into a total fangirl.
on September 27th, 2009 at 3:42 pmGreat review!
I just tried to do a search to find out why this book was challenged. Some of the books on the children’s banned/challenged list seem obvious of reasons — sexually explicit, vulgar language, etc. I’m not saying these are reasons to BAN a book, but most of these books have more or less obvious reasons why *some* people have a problem with them. It’s interesting that even after you read Hush, you weren’t sure!
I’m embarassed to admit, I’ve never heard of this author before. I’m going to have to add Hush to my TBR list! Thanks!
on September 27th, 2009 at 6:44 pmWow, that book sounds wonderful. I’m adding it to my wish list.
on September 27th, 2009 at 6:49 pm