Brown Girl Dreaming: Book Review
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Woodson, Jaqueline. Brown
Girl Dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. ISBN 0399252517
PLOT SUMMARY
This poetic memoir/free verse novel follows the author, Jacqueline
Woodson, through her early childhood during the time of the Civil Rights
Movement, detailing her experience growing up in both the North and the South
during the 1960s and 1970s. Will her family ultimately choose to live in the
North or in the South? Will young Jackie follow her plan to become a writer?
Fall into the humor, emotion, and entertainment of Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming to find out.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Author Jacqueline Woodson’s use of expressive writing and
poetry creates an entertaining and insightful experience for the readers of Brown Girl Dreaming, immersing its
audience fully into the life and happenings of young Jackie. This work is
chock-full of imagery emotion, constantly providing awareness and understanding
into the creative mind of Jackie. Her accounts are written in such a way that
the reader can fully picture the experience. In the poem the cousins, for example, Jackie describes the feeling and ambiance
of the setting, detailing the loud music, a house full of cousins and laughter
during her mother’s birthday, and how the family shares stories, talking over
one another as they bond over their shared history. Jackie even accounts for
the way in which they speak, using descriptive language like ‘tell you ‘bout a
place somewhere up-a New York way’ to mimic the speech patterns and voices of
her family members. This occurs throughout the entirety of the work, providing
the reader with immense description.
Jackie serves to not only provide the readers with insight
into the life of a little girl during the 1960s and 1970s, but also serves to provide
awareness and understanding of the struggle for racial equality and the fight
for such during the Civil Rights Movement. The author tells the readers of her
family ancestry and past to highlight this struggle, informing the audience of
her family’s slave ancestry, as well as highlighting several Civil Rights
Movements happenings during the time of her birth (through the I am born portion) and after as she is
growing up. Jackie becomes our emotional link to the movement, not only forming
a growing attachment for the character through her childlike humor and storytelling,
but also to the struggles her family and people have and continue to face
during the duration of the story. In the context of racial equality, this free
verse novel presents themes of racism and activism. An example of both themes can
be found in the miss bell and the
marchers poem, where Miss Bell helps those marching and displaying
activism, feeding and praying for the participants of the march, and spreading
the word of the march, despite the threat of being immediately fired by her ‘white
lady’ boss who does not support the fight for equality.
Throughout this memoir, Jackie uses her writing to spread
awareness of the racial climate of her childhood, as well as to teach the
readers of the racial injustice of the United States and its history. Her words
spring off the page in their description and imagery, and fill the book’s
readers with emotion and understanding. This is a free verse novel that I would
highly suggest all to read, as well as encourage teachers to use in their
lessons over the Civil Rights Movement.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Newbery Honor Winner
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winner
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
From Kirkus Reviews: “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.”
From Publishers Weekly: “The writer’s passion for stories
and storytelling permeates the memoir, explicitly addressed in her early
attempts to write books and implicitly conveyed through her sharp images and
poignant observations seen through the eyes of a child. Woodson’s ability to
listen and glean meaning from what she hears lead to an astute understanding of
her surroundings, friends, and family.”
From The Horn Book: “A memoir-in-verse so immediate that
readers will feel they are experiencing the author’s childhood right along with
her...Most notable of all, perhaps, we trace her development as a nascent
writer, from her early overarching love of stories through her struggles to
learn to read through the thrill of her first blank composition book to her
realization that ‘words are [her] brilliance’.”
CONNECTIONS
Use to teach about youths during the Civil Rights Movement.
Read other work by Jacqueline Woodson such as:
- · This is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration. ISBN 0399239863
- · Another Brooklyn: A Novel. ISBN 0062359983
Read other National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
winners such as:
- · Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. ISBN 9780316013697
- · Kadohata, Cynthia. The Thing About Luck. ISBN 1442474653
- · Shusterman, Neal. Challenger Deep. ISBN 0061134147
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