Brown Girl Dreaming

 

(Picture from Goodreads.com)

1.     Bibliography

Woodson, Jacqueline. 2014. BROWN GIRL DREAMING. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-399-25251-8

2.       Plot Summary
Jacqueline Woodson’s novel in verse is a powerful memoir that tells the story of her childhood. Constantly moving between different homes in different states, Woodson struggled with a sense of belonging. She was raised by multiple members of her family following her parents’ divorce when she was still a baby. Through her poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American during the 1960s and 1970s. She tries to understand the complexity of the Civil Rights movement and how she fits into the world. Her story is sad, but also full of love and inspiration. Through her poetic words, the reader is enraptured with her discovery and joy of writing and telling stories, despite the fact she struggled with reading. Thankfully, she was inspired to keep with dream that led her to be the talented writer she was to become.

3.       Critical Analysis

The book is written in free verse. Broken up into parts of her life, the verses tell the reader about Woodson’s childhood years. She uses vivid imagery and metaphors to enhance her writing. The poems are short and easy to read. This may cause a reader to go through the book quickly, it could easily be read in a day, but taking the time to slowly take in each word is worth the minutes. We are immersed into her world of late-night hair routines, front porch swings, and uneasy feelings getting on a bus.

Woodson bounced back between South Caroline and New York City during the 1960s and 70s. This was a time of growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. This inevitable, and unavoidably, leads to topics of racism and segregation. Along with those, Woodson experiences differences of religion, divorce, sickness, and death of relatives.

4.       Reviews/ Awards

*Coretta Scott King- Winner 2015

*National Book Award for Young People’s Literature 2014

*John Newberry Medal 2015

*NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary work 2015

"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

"Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson’s highly lauded collection of free-verse poems about her childhood in New York and South Carolina, has language simple enough to be accessible to tweens and young teenagers and more than enough complexity to engage older readers. The winner of a Newbery Honor, NAACP Image Award, National Book Award and Coretta Scott King Award, Brown Girl Dreaming presents the story of Woodson’s experiences living with the remnants of Jim Crow during the 1960s and 1970s. The author confronts issues like faith, racism and sexual abuse using the elegant, spare language and powerful imagery she has come to be known for." —TIME MAGAZINE

“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.”—School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

5.       Connections

*The poems in this book that were about the Civil Rights Movement would be great to use in a history class along with the historical lesson. They would show a firsthand account of the events from a child’s perspective.

*Students could write about events from their childhood in the first-person perspective.

*One of her poems is called “Learning from Langston” and students could research Langston Hughes poems and compare/ contrast her poems to his and see how he inspired her.