Novel in Verse - Brown Girl Dreaming

Lisa

Brown Girl Dreaming is a novel in verse depicting the early childhood of the author, Jacqueline Woodson during the 1960’s. After leaving their father in Ohio, Jacqueline and her siblings live in South Carolina with their grandparents while their mother goes to New York in search of work and establishing a home for her family. Several years later, the siblings move to Brooklyn with their mother, but feel caught between two worlds: the North, with their mother but where the life of a Jehovah witness is not understood, and the South, with their grandparents but where the northern way of talking is not understood and civil rights is still a work in progress. “I want to ask: Will there always be a road? Will there always be a bus? Will we always have to choose between home – and home?” (p.104). Seemingly caught in a void, Jacqueline creates a world of her own, with few friends outside her immediate family. Her days are filled with board games, swings, church, hopscotch – and always stories. “Somewhere in my brain each laugh, tear and lullaby becomes memory.” (p. 20). Although she struggles to read, Jacqueline loves books, storytelling and knows she wants to be a writer someday. As the memoir ends, Jacqueline is only in fifth grade, but already knows her writing will be the gift she shares with the world. “I don’t know how my first composition notebook ended up in my hands, long before I could really write someone must have known that this was all I needed.” (p. 154)

Although this book only depicts the first ten years of Woodson’s life, her words and writing style helps us to visualize growing up as an African-American in both the North and the South in the decades of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Issues and events of the civil rights era are woven throughout the book. Yet, Woodson’s childhood memories are more clearly defined by major events in family members’ lives than the larger societal landscape. This makes the book more accessible and relatable to readers, while challenging them to define what is home to them, seize the moment, and find their passion so they    too can change the world. “I know my work is to make the world a better place for those coming after.” (p. 252). Section titles reveal upcoming themes and feelings, while the use of stanzas and spacing between lines is an unusual, but effective editorial tool that gives emphasis to key passages. “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.” (p. 320). A winner of the National Book Award and the Coretta Scott King Award, this book is recommended for upper elementary students and all ages beyond.

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books.