African American Literature - "Hush" by Jacqueline Woodson

Bibliographic data
Woodson, Jacqueline. Hush. New York: Putnam Juvenile, 2002. ISBN 0399231145

Brief plot summary
Evie Thomas used to be Toswiah Green. Her whole family has a past life that they will always long for. Her father was a police officer that witnessed a horrible crime. He testified against a fellow officer in a murder case and put his family in danger in doing so. The Green family had to go into the Witness Protection Program. With new names, new town, new home, and no friends how is the family supposed to continue living their new life, happily?

Critical analysis
This coming-of-age novel is very suspenseful. Woodson has created such well-rounded characters with a believable plot. The African American heritage plays an immediate strong role in this novel. Toswiah’s father is the only African American officer in the precinct. The family has never had racial issues while living in Denver, until the night of the crime. Officer Green was witness to a crime where one of his fellow officers shot a 15 year-old African American boy because “he thought” he was going for a gun, when in fact he was just putting his hands up in the air. This becomes a “black and white” issue and the Green family receives many threats over the phone. The Thomas family that previously did not have to worry about racial tension in Denver now worries about living another life and fitting in where no one knows them.

Toswiah narrates many passages where she describes the color of certain people’s skin. She states that her mother is “brown – all-over brown – hair, eyes, skin” (2). She continues describing her mother, “mother’s brown reminds her of everything she loves: Chocolate. Dark wool. The smell of the earth. Trees” (2). Her father’s nicknames for his girls are “copper pennies.” Toswiah describes their hair. They can keep braids in their hair without elastic bands because their hair is so kinky. What is a nice change from this book as compared with other African American literature is that there is no African American vernacular language within this book.

Review excerpt
School Library Journal
This multifaceted novel from the talented Woodson may be too introspective for some readers, but those sophisticated enough to manage the intricacies of the story will come away with images and characters who are impossible to forget.

Publishers Weekly
"Evie/Toswiah Thomas/Green," as the narrator once refers to herself, taps hidden stores of inner strength, ultimately realizing that "I am no longer who I was in Denver, but at least and at most I am." Readers facing their own identity crises will find familiar conflicts magnified and exponentially compounded here, yet instantly recognizable and optimistically addressed.

Connections
“Hush” in a Newbery Honor winner
other awards and recognitions include:National Book Award (nominated), ALA Best Book for Young Adults, School Library Journal Best Book, Booklist Editor’s Choice, New York Public Libraries Books for the Teen Age, Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year, Riverbank Review Children's Books of Distinction Short list, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award Master List, Maine Student Book Award Master List, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association Young Adult Top 40 Nominees, Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award (nominated,) Garden State Teen Book Award Nominee

Check out more books by Woodson:
“I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This”
“Miracle’s Boys” – a Coretta Scott King Award
“After Tupac and D Foster”
and the Newbery Honor book: “Feathers”