2015 Newberry Medal Honor Book
2015 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
2014 National Book Award Winner
Born in 1963 Columbus, Ohio was Jacqueline Woodson, whose father had wanted to name her "Jack" after him. Had he known he would not be part of life for very long he might not have bothered This moving memoir written in verse follows the childhood of "Jackie" as she, her brother, sister, and mother leave the racially accepting Ohio to live with her grandparents in South Carolina. In 1960s South Carolina blacks and whites don't mix. You keep your eyes down and you say "yes sir". Despite all of the radical changes happening in the country Jackie and her siblings find love and stability with their grandparents. Later Jackie's family will find a new life in New York with their mother and newest sibling, a baby brother. The streets may not actually be paved with gold as she expected but on the streets of New York and in the desks of her classrooms Jacqueline discovers a passion for writing that she continues to this very day.
When asked why she wrote her memoir in verse rather than prose author Jacqueline Woodson said that was how memories happen. Not in long sentences but in a few lines. She wanted her memoir to be what it was- her memories. And not just her memories but the memories of all the children of her generation who experienced the things she did. Brown girl dreaming is a beautiful work of poetry that shows multiple different types of poems (the "How to listen" poems are written as haikus) as well as supplements lessons in life during the fight against segregation in 1960's America. Other books that cover some of the same times and themes as Brown girl dreaming are Christopher Paul Curtis's Bud, not Buddy and The Watsons go to Birmingham- 1963, The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the attic.
Below is a short interview with author Jacqueline Woodson.
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