Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

Jacqueline is a young girl of color who is raised in South Carolina and New York right as the Civil Right's movement is in its prime.   Jacqueline begins her journey staying with her grandmother and siblings in the south where racism is still blatantly present without challenge.  She is then brought to New York  where her mother is living.  Jacqueline makes a new friend of a different race and begins to see more of an accepted culture.   Jackie is faced with the death of family members, witnessing the Civil Right's Movement and transforming herself into what she has always wanted to be: a writer. 

This book would be great for middle school and early high school students. 

This book gives us a fresh take on the Civil Right's movement, as well as the life of a young African American girl.  It is entirely written as many poems stitched together to compile a beautiful novel.  It is culturally diverse and bringing an understanding and acceptance to being a young black person during the 1960's & 70's. 


What's inside?

Poetry:
This entire novel is compiled only of short poems that Woodson has written for her own biography. 

Imagery:
But some days, just after snow falls, the sun comes out, shines down on the promise of that tree from back home joining us here. 

Themes: 
Racism
African American Culture
Family
The South
New York City

How can we teach this?
Inside of all of us is a poet, though we may not know it.  (HA!)

Have your students highlight sentences that speak to them while they are reading.  Once at the end of the novel, have them record all of the sentences they highlighted.  

This is a found poem. 

Have them bring their poem to class and read aloud in small groups.  Make sure they can explain why they picked what they did.