Carrie
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is memoir of
Jacqueline’s childhood told in verse. Jaqueline is born in Ohio in 1963, a time
she describes as “caught between black and white.” (Woodson p.1.) She begins
her life in Ohio, where the treatment of blacks is better. When her parents get
a divorce, she moves with her mother and siblings to South Carolina to live
with her grandparents. Despite the fact that she must now sit on the back of
the bus and be followed in stores, she chronicles what is a beautiful
childhood. She is proud of who she is,
and her extended family gives her a sense of belonging. Her grandmother tells
stories in the evenings and cooks delicious southern food, and her grandfather,
who she calls Daddy, swings with her on the front porch. As she gets older, it
is clear that Jacqueline has a gift for making up stories, and for retelling
stories she hears. As young as five
years old, Jaqueline longs to write. A blank composition book she receives is a
prized possession; although she has a hard time committing the first word to
the page. She wants more than anything
to be a writer, and her longing is palpable. What we already know as the reader
is that her dream will be realized.
I would recommend this book for
strong readers in late elementary school (4th grade+) through adult.
While the content of the book is accessible to elementary readers, Jacqueline’s
unique voice and lyrical writing style requires a lot of inferencing. For
example, on page 32, Jaqueline personifies “a front porch swing thirsty for
oil.” (Woodson, 32.) On page 22, she describes her mother’s grief as “a
hollowness where only minutes before she had been whole.” (Woodson, 22.) These,
and many other passages may be challenging for younger readers. Yet to older readers, the visual imagery she
presents and the rhythm of her writing is beautiful.
Works
Cited
Woodson, J.
(2014.) brown girl dreaming. New
York, NY. Penguin Group.
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