Brown Girl Dreaming

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown Girl Dreaming. NY: Nancy Paulsen Books. The general subject of Brown Girl Dreaming is it’s a free verse memoir by Jacqueline Woodson about her childhood as an African American growing up in the American Northeast and South during the 1960s. The major facts are Brown Girl Dreaming is a non-fiction autobiography of Woodson craftily recounting several categories through poetry, including childhood, family, and history. Extras that are included in Brown Girl Dreaming are family tree of Woodson’s relatives, descendants, and ancestors, author’s notes, thankfuls, and some of Woodson’s family photos. Hidden by Helen Frost and Red Butterfly by A.L. Sonnichsen can serve as follow up reading. History teachers might find this book valuable because Brown Girl Dreaming is historical and can be read when students are being taught about America’s civil rights movement and/or about segregation. One major strength is the fact that every single page of Brown Girl Dreaming is an autobiography written in the form of a poem, giving this book a unique taste, a different perspective, and is what will make Brown Girl Dreaming stand out from all the other autobiographies. Brown Girl Dreaming meets the social developmental criteria because even though Jacqueline and her family are rejected in society during the civil rights movement, they continue to go on with their everyday life all the while valuing God to bless them for favoring peaceful protest marches. The strength of Woodson’s family is what keeps their willpower alive.