hush Analysis

In a book about a family's move across the country with the Federal Witness Protection Program, place matters, as you might imagine. So let's talk about the places the Green family finds themselves...

Toswiah/Evie guides us through her story, telling us what happens to her and around her, which is how we know she's a first person narrator. Because she's also the protagonist, she's a central narr...

Like so many books, hush combines elements of several genres. It's young adult literature because our main girl is a young adult herself, so it deals with issues common to young adults—think: sch...

While she leaves no question in our minds that getting relocated by witness protection really stinks, Toswiah/Evie remains relatively chill about the way she relays what happened. Toswiah/Evie is w...

hush jumps from place to place and moment to moment. One minute we're in the Northeast, and the next minute we're back in one of Toswiah/Evie's Denver memories—perhaps a memory that has to do wit...

First, let's look at the capitalization… Oh wait—there isn't any. hush is lowercase, as if even the title is whispering. There are lots of issues around silence versus speech in this book. When...

Hush, little baby, don't say a word..."Hush, Little Baby, Don't Say a Word" is the first line of a lullaby traditionally attributed to Mother Goose. In the lullaby, a father pledges to buy his baby...

In the last scene, Toswiah/Evie visits Daddy in the medical facility where he's recovering from his suicide attempt. They sit down together, and Toswiah/Evie realizes she's forgiven her father for...

The same thing that makes hush interesting can present some challenges for how we grasp what's going on. Most of the action in this book takes place inside Toswiah/Evie's own head. This is cool bec...

Wrong Place, Wrong TimeIf Toswiah/Evie's Daddy hadn't witnessed the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by two white cops, he wouldn't be in the position of choosing between testifying and losing...

Woodson writes picture books and middle grade and young adult novels. In other words, she's got range. (Source.)Jacqueline Woodson has a dog named Toffee and a cat named Fred. Toffee and Fred...

There's nothing remotely sexy in this book, but we're guessing the movie folks would give it a PG rating because Toswiah/Evie occasionally talks about her developing body. Also, some guys on the st...

Jehovah's Witnesses (2.1 and throughout)Watchtower and Awake! magazines (2.1)Reasoning the Scriptures (2.1)Tracy Chapman, "All That You Have is Your Soul" (1.1)Tony Orlando and Dawn (1.14)Tradition...