"Brown Girl Dreaming"

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson

ISBN  0399252517

Plot Summary

Brown Girl Dreaming is novel in verse about a black girl that was growing up during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.  Jacqueline starts her life in Ohio, but when her parents split up, she moves to South Carolina.  Times were tough in South Carolina, so Jacqueline's mom looked for work in New York.  They moved to New York and met new friends and a different culture.  Jacqueline discovers family and identity are important in life in this welcoming memoir.

Critical Analysis

It 's hard to pin down exactly where this book belongs.  It is a novel written in poetry verse but when I went to buy it at the bookstore it was in the young adult autobiography section.  According to School Library Journal, they categorize this book as Historical Fiction because the author writes her childhood in a factual way but through the lenses of fiction (Bird, 2014). 

Brown Girl Dreaming is a novel that was written in verse.  Woodson uses alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia to create sounds that explain her story.  Woodson uses some white space and spacing to convey emotion and enrich the language of the poem.  The book has five different parts.  At the beginning of the book, Woodson sets the tone for the rest of the book with "I am born brown-skinned, black-haired and wide-eyed.  I am born Negro here and Colored there." Woodson makes it very clear that there is a difference between her father's Ohio and her mother's South Carolina.   Woodson uses italicized font to let you know when someone is saying something.  The italics bring emphasis to certain points throughout the short poems.  Not all of the poems rhymed in a rhythmic pattern, but that was not needed with the carefully chosen words to describe the emotion in the story.  The verse and spacing bring pauses that add tension to the phrase without saying anything.  Woodson shows how she found her poetic voice at this young age in a tough time to become the amazing woman she is today.

Rewards and Reviews

National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2014)

Newbery Honor (2015)

Sibert Honor (2015)

Coretta Scott King Award for Author (2015)

Claudia Lewis Award for Older Readers (2015)

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Middle Grade & Children's (2014)

YALSA Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2015)

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor for Nonfiction (2015)

BOOKLIST “[Woodson’s] memoir in verse is a marvel, as it turns deeply felt remembrances of Woodson’s preadolescent life into art. . . . Her mother cautions her not to write about her family but, happily, many years later, she has and the result is both elegant and eloquent, a haunting book about memory that is itself altogether memorable.

KIRKUS REVIEW “Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned. For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.”

 SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL  “Mesmerizing journey through [Woodson’s] early years. . . . Her perspective on the volatile era in which she grew up is thoughtfully expressed in powerfully effective verse. . . . With exquisite metaphorical verse Woodson weaves a patchwork of her life experience . . . that covers readers with a warmth and sensitivity no child should miss. This should be on every library shelf”

Connections

Use this book with Black History Month.

Use this book while studying the Civil Rights Movement.

Pull other books by Jacqueline Woodson

The Other Side ISBN 0399231161

Locomotion ISBN 0142401498

Each Kindness ISBN 0399246525

Feathers ISBN 0399239898

Have students research the Jim Crow laws and write about how this affected Jacqueline’s life.

Pair with I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr., Kadir Nelson (Illustrations) ISBN 037598772X and One Crazy Summer ISBN 0060760885.

Pull other Coretta Scott King Award Books:

Gone Crazy in Alabama ISBN 0062215906

P.S. Be Eleven ISBN 0061938629

Elijah of Buxton ISBN  0439023440

Copper Sun ISBN 0439023440 

Have students do an author exploration.  Students can look up Jacqueline Woodson’s Site http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/.  Or have students listen to the author’s interview at http://www.npr.org/2016/10/14/497953254/jacqueline-woodson-on-growing-up-coming-out-and-saying-hi-to-strangers. 

References:

Bird, Elizabeth. “Review of the Day: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.” June 2, 2014. Accessed March 2, 2017. http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2014/06/02/review-of-the-day-brown-girl-dreaming-by-jacqueline-woodson/#_.

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“Jacqueline Woodson on Growing Up, Coming out and Saying Hi to Strangers.” October 14, 2016. Accessed March 2, 2017. http://www.npr.org/2016/10/14/497953254/jacqueline-woodson-on-growing-up-coming-out-and-saying-hi-to-strangers

Woodson, Jacqueline. “Brown Girl Dreaming.” October 11, 2016. Accessed March 2, 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Girl-Dreaming-Jacqueline-Woodson/dp/0147515823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488405167&sr=8-1&keywords=brown+girl+dreaming

Woodson, Jacqueline. “Books for Children and Young AdultsJacqueline Woodson.” 2002. Accessed March 2, 2017. http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/.