Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

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1. Bibliography

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Penguin Group, 2014. ISBN 9780399252518

2. Plot Summary

This award-winning free verse memoir is both a history lesson and an entertaining story about a little girl named Jackie. In Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson, or Jackie, takes readers on a bittersweet journey through her own childhood. Jackie is a young African American girl during the 1960s and 1970s who lives in both the North and the South. She never quite feels at home in either place, and with her family being devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, no one ever really understands her like her family does. Throughout this book, Woodson finds her voice in writing. She discovers that she can have the world - all of it - if she just writes it down. That’s exactly what she does. Woodson says, “And that’s what this book is - my past, my people, my memories, my story.”

3. Critical Analysis

Brown Girl Dreaming is about a young African American girl named Jackie finding her voice through writing. From her first introduction to letters, she loves them. At age three, before she can read or write a word, Jackie knows the letter “J.” She loves “the way it curves into a hook / that I carefully top with a straight hat … Love / the sound of the letter.” When she asks her sister if words will ever end, she rests in her sister’s promise that they never will - they will go on for infinity. Later in the novel, she dreams of catching words, of holding them. Instead, her family tells her, “It’s a good hobby, we see how quiet it keeps you, / They say, / But maybe you should be a teacher, / a lawyer, / do hair,” but what Jackie can’t explain to anyone is that words are like air to her. “I breathe them in and let them out / over and over again.”

When Jackie is in fourth grade, her teacher asks her to come to the front of the class and read out loud. However, she doesn’t need to bring the book with her to read out loud. She has memorized her entire book. Her teachers thinks this is brilliant, but Jackie knows words are her brilliance. By the end of the novel, when there is no doubt that Jackie has found her voice, she discovers that the world is close enough to touch through her words. “The world - my world! - like words … All of it, mine now if I just listen / and write it down.”

Without the events of her childhood, Jackie never would have found her voice. The civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s sets the stage for this story. Because Jackie lives in both the North and the South, she never fit in in either place. She was born in Ohio because that was where her father wanted to be, but it was never home to her mother whose roots ran deep in Greenville, South Carolina. After her parents divorced, Jackie moved with her mother, brother, and sister back to Greenville, but she kept her Northern accent - another reason she never fit in in the south.

As soon as they arrive in Greenville, Jackie is introduced to racism and segregation. It’s 1963 in South Carolina, and peaceful protests are daily occurrences. Woodson brings into this story many pieces of African American history - segregation, peaceful protests, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. Because segregation is still happening in South Carolina at this time, Jackie and her family have to sit in the back of the bus. Although her mother takes her children to sit in the back of the bus, she whispers in Jackie’s brother’s ear, “We’re as good as anybody.” This message is also whispered throughout the novel. It conveys the kind of attitude Jackie is raised with. Her family will follow the rules, but they know without a doubt they’re as good as anybody and nothing can change that.

It is also Jackie’s family’s religion that reminds them they’re as good as anybody. She and her family are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jackie’s grandmother is the family’s spiritual leader. She keeps her Bible on a shelf by her bed, and every evening she reads to herself. In the morning, “she’ll tell us the stories, / how Noah listened / to God’s word.” She tells them stories of Jacob, Jesus, and Moses, and they love her and the Bible times. This faith is a rock for Jackie and her family throughout the novel. They spend every evening of the week at church. In fact, that is how Jackie learns the days of the week - by which church activity falls on which day.

Woodson uses free style poetry to tell her story and to relate the history of the civil rights movement from a child’s perspective. Writing in free verse allows her to communicate this story simply, creatively, and with greater effect on the reader than if she had not written in poetry. Each poem is one to two pages long and includes its own title, with stanzas ranging from one to 15 lines each. The poems flow together and read easily to tell this story. By writing in free verse, Woodson takes away the distraction of unnecessary words and sentences that would detract from the story. Instead, each phrase has power and settles deeply into the mind and soul of the reader - just like poetry does - etching this story into the memory of its readers for years to come.

4. Review Excerpts

BOOKLIST (August 1, 2014): "Her mother cautions her not to write about her family, but, happily, many years later she has—and the result is both elegant and eloquent, a haunting book about memory that is itself altogether memorable."

KIRKUS (July 15, 2014): "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."

Newbery Honor Book 2015

5. Connections

Gather other books by Jacqueline Woodson such as:

Locomotion. (ISBN 978-0142415528).

Feathers. (ISBN 978-0142415504).

If You Come Softly. (978-0142415221).

• Listen to the following interview with Jacqueline Woodson on NPR entitle “Jacqueline Woodson On Being A ‘Brown Girl’ Who Dreams: http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/09/18/348992638/jacqueline-woodson-on-being-a-brown-girl-who-dreams

• Have students write their own shortened version of Woodson’s free verse memoir using events from their own lives. Students can focus on one event (such as their birthday like Woodson’s first poem in the book) or on multiple events that shaped their lives.