Jacqueline Woodson

In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Lindsay

Hanniyah Cross

Emily Burns

This poetic memoir soars. Just beautiful.

Sarah Sammis

There's an audio version performed by the author that I was would like to listen to in the future. 

http://pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2017...

“I know that I was and continue to be loved.

Emma Younger

“I know that I was and continue to be loved.

I couldn't ask for anything more.“

Melissa Palmer

Book #82 Read in 2014
brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (YA)

This book, told in verse, is a telling of Woodson's childhood, time spent in the South with her family, time spent in NYC with her family and the working on her family. Growing up in a time of the civil rights movement, Woodson recounts sitting in the back of the bus, watching the Black Panthers on tv, and feeling different from those around her. Woodson always had a love for words and that was the driving force of her becoming the wonderful author she is today. This was a quick, interesting read.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Raven K

this book was.. different. and personally, it was very relatable. I wanted to honestly take my time with this one..and I did..sort of 🙃. I really enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend this to everybody.

Nicole Dykeman

If I ever tried to write a memoir, I could only hope to do it this beautifully.

jess

While I'm usually not a fan of verse novels, the poetry in this was beautiful. It is an exploration of what it was like to grow up brown in a time where it was a struggle to grow up anything but white. Woodson's poetry is beautiful but direct and simplistic, which I loved.

That this is a memoir in verse makes it hard to read and I do think that this is the best way to write it. A prose memoir would have dragged but this was perfect length.

Jenna

4.5 stars. I read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson on the plane back after Christmas. I didn’t realize it was nonfiction or that it was poetry until I started reading. I always say that I’m not a poetry person but I never realized poetry could be like this: loose and story-like.

This book is about the author’s experience growing up black in both the south and New York City in the 1960s and 70s. It is accessible and easy enough for middle schoolers to read, but insightful and interesting enough to keep adults engaged too.

Woodson’s writing is honest and lovely. Her story is moving and will stick with you. She paints a beautiful portrait of her family and her life, and I could picture everything she described so clearly. I’d recommend this to everyone!

Noah Warner

quite boring to say the least.
i really thought it'd pick up and was disappointed when the whole book was mediocre.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

This book gives you this gift, drawn from the memories of Woodson's childhood and family:

each world

When there are many worlds
you can choose the one
you walk into each day.
...

When there are many worlds, love can wrap itself
around you, say, Don't cry. Say, You are as good as anyone.
Say, Keep remembering me. And you know, even as the 
 world explodes
around you--that you are loved...

Each day a new world
opens itself up to you. And all the worlds you are--
...

gather into one world

called You

where You decide

what each world
and each story
and each ending

will finally be.

Elaina Wells

I thought Brown Girl Dreaming was an inventive look into the life of Jacqueline Woodson. My favorite part was that it was in prose, so it felt like a steady stream of consciousness was occurring as I was reading the memoir. It definitely is not a book I would regularly pick for myself, I had to read this for a college class, but I really enjoyed reading it.

Jeff Brown 

Another solid 4.5 for a very good middle-grade book.

I want to thank Sarah for mentioning in her review that books written in verse are troublesome to read because it is difficult to hear how the author is presenting the poems, and suggested audiobooks were the answer. And I agree. I have not only found Jacqueline Woodson, but Jason Reynolds. Thus far.

"BGD" is about the author's upbringing in Greenville, South Carolina, and in Brooklyn during the turbulent 1960s and early 70s. Woodson's family moved to SC early in her life, and remained while her mother moved to Brooklyn for work and Woodson lived with her relatives. Eventually, Woodson and her siblings moved to Brooklyn to live with her mother. The children returned to spend the summers in Greenville. Despite the times, Woodson made her time in Greenville sound idyllic.

While she adapted to a new culture in Brooklyn, Woodson was learning how to put her voice to paper, having the support of a teacher that told her that she was a writer, and finding a life-long friend in Maria.

If I may borrow from a couple of other reviews that said it better than myself:

"BGD is a portrait of a little girl cherishing her family and dreaming of a better world."

"(BGD) introduces young readers to some difficult, but important topics and raises awareness, lest we repeat history."

And in young Woodson's own words,

"Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen."

Laura Kehoe

I haven’t read many books written in prose like this, but I found I really liked this style of writing. I had a harder time at first, since I was not used to it, after the first few pages I really enjoyed myself! The stories were powerful and beautifully written. This book may have been short, but it packed quite a punch. I’d highly recommend checking this one out!

Samiha Tasnim

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
-Langston Hughes 


I do not know if these hands will become
Malcolm’s—raised and fisted
or Martin’s—open and asking
or James’s—curled around a pen.
I do not know if these hands will be
Rosa’s
or Ruby’s
gently gloved
and fiercely folded
calmly in a lap,
on a desk,
around a book,
ready
to change the world . . 


You’ll face this in your life someday,
my mother will tell us
over and over again.
A moment when you walk into a room and
no one there is like you.
It’ll be scary sometimes.


Somewhere in my brain
each laugh, tear and lullaby
becomes memory


We’re as good as anybody,
my mother whispers.
As good as anybody


Everyone else, she says,
has a new place to be now.
Everyone else
has gone away.
And now coming back home
isn’t really coming back home
at all


Lullaby
At night, every living thing competes
for a chance to be heard.
The crickets
and frogs call out.
Sometimes, there’s the soft
who-whoo of an owl lost
amid the pines.
Even the dogs won’t rest until
they’ve howled
at the moon.
But the crickets always win, long after
the frogs stop croaking
and the owl has found its way home.
Long after the dogs have lain down
losing the battle against sleep,
the crickets keep going
as though they know their song
is our lullaby. 


Will the words end, I ask
whenever I remember to.
Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now,
and promising me
infinity. 


In my own head,
it’s real as anything.


I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There’s nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began—
I loved my friend.
—Langston Hughes


But on paper, things can live forever.
On paper, a butterfly
never dies. 


Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen. 


And on those days, so much light and warmth fills
the room that it’s hard not to believe
in a little bit
of everything. 


Do you remember . . . ?
someone’s always asking and
someone else, always does. 


No accidents, my mother says. Just fate and faith
and reasons.


When there are many worlds
you can choose the one
you walk into each day.


When there are many worlds, love can wrap itself
around you, say, Don’t cry. Say, You are as good as anyone.
Say, Keep remembering me. And you know, even as the
world explodes
around you—that you are loved . . .


Each day a new world
opens itself up to you. And all the worlds you are—
Ohio and Greenville
Woodson and Irby
Gunnar’s child and Jack’s daughter
Jehovah’s Witness and nonbeliever
listener and writer
Jackie and Jacqueline—
gather into one world
called You
where You decide
what each world
and each story
and each ending
will finally be.

3.5

Nonfiction is a bit tricky for me. Sometimes I read it, and I fall absolutely in love. And other times, it just kind of feelings lacking. Unfortunately for this book, it was the latter. I really appreciate the story that it is telling. I liked that she showed some of the differences between living in the South and living in the North in this time period. I appreciated seeing the struggles that her family dealt with, and how she kind of processed them as a child.

That being said, it just felt really lackluster for me. I don't know if the format just didn't work for me personally with this story (though I generally love things written in verse). I think I might have enjoyed it more if it had been written in prose.

Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner, now available in paperback with 7 all-new poems. Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature A President Obama "O" Book Club pick Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. Includes 7 new poems, including "Brown Girl Dreaming". Praise for Jacqueline Woodson: A 2016 National Book Award finalist for her adult novel, ANOTHER BROOKLYN "Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story . . . but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery."--The New York Times Book Review

Silje Risøy Helgerud

 Bruna Acioly Leão

Really enjoyed this! 

It is an auto-biography written in verse, which I thought wouldn't work great for me, but it reads like a narrative more than like verse.
The writing is easy to grasp but very powerful and her stories are very interesting. Nothing extraordinary happens in Woodson's life, but she does make it seem like it did.

I also really recommend getting this on audio - it's really quick and has a great narration flow - not too slow, the right emotion put into each word and all that - it is narrated by the author, after all. 

If you're just getting started with audios, this is also a good book to try out.

Stefie 

TW: Child abuse, death, bullying, racism.

Brown Girl Dreaming is a book that quite complex. I am not sure if middle graders would really grasp it but I think it would be great for a bit older readers. 

I love this book for many many reasons. Reading this book has given me a lot of perspective and knowledge, a glimpse about what happened back then. But it is not only shows you that, I feel like Jacqueline sitting right beside me and tell me her story over a cup of tea or two. It shows the complexity, struggle and life of Jacqueline as a black girl in America then, it is moving and sad, but there are a lot of joy in it too. Something that touched me deeper is the author's relationship with her grandfather. It made me miss my grandpa too :"). Somehow, I felt the warmth while reading the book. 

I also like that this book is told in poetry like. Don't worry, it is not hard poetry or anything. Easy to follow through. I highly recommend to pick it up if you haven't. 

Thank you Jacqueline for sharing your story :)

Kate

Having previously only read one book written in verse, I was incredibly intrigued going into this and even more so knowing it was was non-fiction and I wasn't disappointed. It was such a unique reading experience and one I very much enjoyed. Brown Girl Dreaming touched on so many important topics, such as race, passion, family and in a heartfelt way that had me flying through it in one sitting. I loved learning about Jaqueline Woodson's life through this form and it's reminded me how much I love reading biographies.

Brown Girl Dreaming

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