Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Release Date: August 28, 2014
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Genre: Biography, African American, Poetry
ISBN: 978-0399252518
Source: ARC at BEA 2014
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Jacqueline Woodson, one of today’s finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.

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.

Brown Girl Dreaming is written in verse.
It’s divided into five parts but flows beautifully as one.
There are so many stories about growing up brown to be told.
I’m so glad I got the chance to read hers.
Initially, I had zero expectations.
Though I had a dozen fears.
In the end, none of them mattered.

From Ohio to South Carolina to New York.
From Ruby Bridges to marches to the Black Panthers.
From moon pies to composition notebooks to summer vacation.
This story is about Jacqueline’s history, black history, my history.

It’s about the love of a daughter, granddaughter, a friend.
It’s about family, love and loss. Separation. Coping.
It’s about differences and learning. Growing and sacrifice.
Faith.
Fighting for the unknown.
Peace.
Fighting for equality.

Like Jacqueline, my mother is a child of the 60s.
I love my mother’s stories. Her past.
I also loved drowning in Jacqueline’s stories.
Seeing the differences and similarities.
There are so many similarities.
As black women, growing up in a certain time.
Growing up in the midwest, south, and New York.
Switch Ohio for Chicago.
South Carolina for Macon, Georgia.
Brooklyn for the Bronx.
Add Newark.
And there’s my mother’s history.
So many differences but still so, so, so many, oh so many similarities.
I learned a lot. I laughed plenty. I understood.

“Stevie and Me” could be an anthem for the WNDB Campaign.
“Composition Notebook” is like every young writer’s anthem.
There are so many poems that spoke to me.
Lullaby. South Carolina at War. The Training.
American Dream. Ghosts. Fresh Air.
Too Good. The Stories I Tell. The Revolution. Each World.
Writing #1.
How to Listen #2.
How to Listen #7.
How to Listen #10.

This is the first book I’ve read by Jacqueline Woodson.
It won’t be the last.
I love her prose.
I love the subject matter.
What matters to her matters to me. To you, too. I know.
And seeing life through her eyes at a time when my parents were young as she was, my grandparents were fighting in war, fighting for their dreams, fighting for equal rights…
Brown Girl Dreaming is such a treasure.
It’s a time capsule that’s timeless because it never ends.
Jacqueline describes the revolution like a merry-go-round.
She’s right.
And it’s not just the revolution.
It’s life.
And she captures it so beautifully.
I can’t wait to buy not only a hardcover copy of
Brown Girl Dreaming
But an audiobook copy which Jacqueline herself narrates.

Everyone should read this book.
You’ll be so happy that you did.
I’m telling you, you want this book.
August 28, 2014 is the release date and then this beauty is all yours.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson releases August 28, 2014.