KidLit Kaleidoscope: brown girl dreaming

Woodson, Jacqueline. 2014. Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books. ISBN 9780399252518

Plot Summary

Brown Girl Dreaming is a novelization of the author’s young life, beginning with her birth in Ohio, flowing through her young childhood in South Carolina, and finally as she grows in New York. Jaqueline (or Jackie) has an older brother and sister, and later a younger brother, who are encouraged by their grandmother to find comfort and playmates in one another. “Three is plenty. Three is a team,” she tells them. Jaqueline’s parents break up, with her mom taking the three kids back to her childhood home. The three kids develop a close relationship with their grandparents, even calling their grandfather “Daddy,” because he was the only father they really knew. Eventually, their mom decides to make a new life for them in New York with their recently arrived little brother. Living in the city is a culture shock, but Jackie finds ways to adapt, and as she grows, she finds what makes her special—her words.

Critical Analysis

Jacqueline Woodson wrote Brown Girl Dreaming as a free verse novel. Each poem ranges from a couple of lines to two pages. While each poem is written to be able to stand alone, together they weave a tale from the perspective of a young, innocent child trying to make sense of the world and her place in it. On occasion, the narrative provides insights into the dealing with change, from an adult perspective as well as a child’s. When Jackie’s mother returns to the South after leaving her husband, she expects the gentle familiarity of her past, but discovers that when things have changed, “. . . coming back home / isn’t really coming back home / at all” (47).

Things can never stay exactly the same, which, while painful, also means growth and promises for the future. After finally watching the neighborhood kids leave their swing set, young Jackie realizes, “The empty swing set reminds us of this-- / that what is bad won’t be bad forever, / and what is good can sometimes last / a long, long time” (130).

The biggest growth in the book comes from Jackie herself, who throughout the book looks up to her “brilliant” sister and often feels in her shadow. Although she struggles in school, she feels a connection to words, even before she can form them with her little hands. But she feels compelled to take in words, think words, feel words. She wants to be a writer, and “Every memory . . . / brings me closer / and closer to the dream” (314). She is ready to claim her destiny.

The choice to write this story in verse lends a clarity to the perspective of Jackie. It provides an oasis of simplicity in the complex world she is growing up in, and world that juxtaposes the call for peaceful revolution from Martin Luther King, Jr. against the Black Power movement of Malcom X. Jackie comes from a broken home, but a tight-knit family. She starts off raised in the South, but grows a new relationship with the North. But through all of these contradictions, it is the poetry that keeps the story natural and reasonable. The contradictions are not impossible ones. They are just part of the fabric of the rich tapestry of life.

Professional Reviews

2014 Newbery Award

2014 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work In YA Fiction

2015 Coretta Scott King Book Award

From Publisher’s Weekly: “The writer’s passion for stories and storytelling permeates the memoir, explicitly addressed in her early attempts to write books and implicitly conveyed through her sharp images and poignant observations seen through the eyes of a child.”

From Kirkus Reviews: “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. For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.”

Connections

Not surprisingly, Jacqueline Woodson has a number of other great books you can check out, like:

Locomotion (2010) ISBN 978-0142415528 (This was a National Book Award Finalist)