Penguin.com (usa)

Behind You

Jacqueline Woodson - Author

Paperback | $7.99 | add to cart | view cart
ISBN 9780142415542 | 160 pages | 08 Jul 2010 | Puffin | 5.51 x 8.26in | 10 - AND UP years
Additional Formats:
Summary of Behind You Summary of Behind You Reviews for Behind You An Excerpt from Behind You
A moving story of love and loss from a three-time Newbery winning author

You are so light you move with the wind and the snow. . . . And it lifts you up-over a world of sadness and anger and fear. Over a world of first kisses and hands touching and someone you're falling in love with. She's there now. Right there. . . .

Miah and Ellie were in love. Even though Miah was black and Ellie was white, they made sense together. Then Miah was killed. This was the ending.

And it was the beginning of grief for the many people who loved Miah. Now his mother has stopped trying, his friends are lost and Ellie doesn't know how to move on. And there is Miah, watching all of this&150unable to let go.

How do we go on after losing someone we love? This is the question the living and the dead are asking.

With the help of each other, the living will come together. Miah will sit beside them. They will feel Miah in the wind, see him in the light, hear him in their music. And Miah will watch over them, until he is sure each of those he loved is all right.

This beautiful sequel to Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly explores the experiences of those left behind after tragedy. It is a novel in which through hope, understanding and love, healing begins.


"In a deftly constructed series of first-person reactions and reflections, Woodson reaches back to the events of If You Come Softly and explores the grieving and process of moving on for both the mistakenly killed Jeremiah as well as for his family, friends, and white, Jewish girlfriend." - VOYA

"Books with painful subject matter rarely leave the reader longing for more. This one does." - Children's Literature


To keep up-to-date, input your email address, and we will contact you on publication

Please alert me via email when:


The author releases another book