Brown Girl Dreaming

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

Summary: The autobiography explores the makings of a writer. Jacqueline Woodson long dreamed of writing a book and found places and time to practice her writing. The author comes from a tight family circle, but as she grew up, her world expands to politics and new religions.

Impression:          This book is autobiographical from Jacqueline Woodson and traces her life from early years in Ohio to South Carolina to New York City. The family photos and the family tree are wonderful and brings the characters to life. Woods brings in so sadness much, like the segregated culture in South Carolina, her parents’ divorce and death of beloved relatives, yet the warmth of her grandparents and the simple joys of childhood like board games and swing sets rings true, too.           This is a great writing example to show students that less is more. The short chapters are very vivid and build a powerful story. Each chapter focuses on a small moment and each moment builds a lifetime of memories. It’s surprisingly quick read for a thick book. This book may appeal to students, who don’t think they’re strong readers. The short chapters are prose, so the reader doesn’t have to tackle poetic verse. The breaks in the sentences will leave long columns are visually very appealing.

Library Use:            I would explore a lesson on creative writing with this book for middle or high schoolers. I would read a few excerpts from different parts of her life. The excerpts can be examples for students to write about small moments in their lives. We can take one excerpt and circle the rich use of language in it. “I want to catch words one day.” “When there are many worlds you can choose the one you walk into each day.” I would ask students to write about a small moment from their lives. Then I would ask that they share with a partner and each partner needs to write something they like about the writing.