If You Come Softly

If You Come Softly is a work of young adult fiction written by Jacqueline Woodson in 1998. In a reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet, the novel tells the story of Ellie and Jeremiah, a young couple from New York City who finds love and connection across the boundaries of race.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with a prologue where Ellie wakes from dreaming about Jeremiah. Ellie tells her mother Marion that she dreamed about Jeremiah, and Marion tells Ellie to remember what she can. The rest of the novel takes place in a flashback, alternating between Ellie and Jeremiah’s points of view.

Jeremiah, a Black boy in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, feels good in his skin, but he grew up around different ideas of what it was to be Black. Everyone else’s thoughts echo through Jeremiah’s head, but he’s still unsure of who he is when he looks in the mirror. Ellie, a white girl from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, remembers the rainy day when she met Jeremiah. She walked home slowly from her first day at Percy Academy, thinking about the boy she crashed into in the hallway with a beautiful smile, hair, and face. Both Ellie and Jeremiah are noticeably affected by the encounter, but they keep their admiration a secret from their respective mothers.