Book Review of Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

 1. Bibliography Woodson, J. 2014. Brown girl dreaming. Nancy Paulsen Books. ISBN: 9780399252518 

2. Plot Summary In this story we follow Jacqueline Woodson and her life from birth in 1963 and into her adolescent years. We met her siblings Hope, Odella, and Roman. We follow the family to the start of their lives in Ohio until their mother takes them to live with her family in the South. Jacqueline (Jakie for short) creates a great bond with her grandparents and loves her simple life in the South. Her mother then finds them a home up in New York where they all move and get accustomed to life, but Jackie always wants to go back to what she had in the South. Jackie gets a notebook, and she finds herself in her writing and feels accomplished with this. We see the different ins and outs of racial segregation and prejudice that she received in her life and how this affected who she is today. 

3. Critical Analysis In this story we have many different characters that evolve in the book, but the main character is Jacqueline Woodson and her family, Hope, Odella, and Roman along with her mom, father, grandmother, and grandfather who she calls Daddy. Jacqueline has a special bond with her grandfather that you can see in the story. This book is written by the actual main character, so everything is authentic to what she went through as a child. You can see the different socio-economic statuses in many different scenarios in the book and how this made her feel. In the setting we have different states that the family travels to, including Ohio, South Carolina and New York. These different places come with different settings while South Carolina is very rural you get more of the segregation and prejudice in this state. While Ohio the black people were free to do as they pleased. The whole book is rich with cultural details; the verse poem style the book is written in gives you the same feeling and details as you get with a chapter book. You get how she feels, the way things taste and smell in each poem. This story has accurate descriptions of what the world was like growing up black in the 1960’s-1970’s. This book gives you an idea of how close and important a family was these days, families stuck together and looked out for one another. Even though Jacqueline’s family left their dad at the beginning of the story, you can see how the family became closer even in his absence. You can see how important her religion was to her, maybe not as important as her grandmother would like but it did shape her life. You see different cultural references in the book like how they would have to lay down and get their hair greased to be braided, the songs and stories that were told by her grandfather, and the social expectations her mom had for the children. The book also features a family tree in the beginning of the book as well as authentic pictures of the families in the back. 

4. Review Excerpt(s) A National Book Award Winner A Coretta Scott King Award Winner A Newbery Honor Book

“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 “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.”—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW 

5. Connections *Students could write personal memoir poems of their own, taking poems from the book and writing about their own lives. *Students could create a visual collage representing their culture and family members.