Brown Girl Dreaming

Summary:
Jackie moves from the North to Greenville, South Carolina when her parents split up so that her mother, siblings and she can live with her maternal grandparents. Though the South is in the midst of the Civil Rights movement and people aren't always kind, Jackie loves Greenville and living with her family there. When her mother moves back North and takes the children with her, Jackie befriends a Puerto Rican girl in New York named Maria and decides she wants to be a writer. Every year, Jackie visits her grandparents back in Greenville and as she grows up she becomes more aware of the changing social and political climate and the continuing Civil Rights movement.

Strengths:
Brown Girl Dreaming is written in verse. This reflects Jackie's love of words and phrases and they way they come together and the rhythm they create. Many lines are beautiful by themselves but together they are heartachingly so in places. Because the book is a historical fiction piece, Woodson weaves her story with pieces that are humorous, poignant and sad all at the same time, bringing those parts together with the facts of the era and of her childhood.

If you liked this book, check out these!

The Crossover
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

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

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