This week’s staff pick is the multi-award winning Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Told in verse, Brown Girl Dreaming is Woodson’s autobiographical tale of growing up African American in the 1960’s and 70’s. Woodson is a masterful storyteller and gives the reader a real sense of time and place. Winner of the National Book Award For Young People’s Literature and the Coretta Scott King Award, this is a great read for young adults (and adults too!).
“Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.”
—Amazon
Brown Girl Dreaming was recently featured on list of contemporary books by black authors destined to become classics. Browse the entire list here.
