Brown Girl Dreaming: First Read

Our latest book is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The book is written in verse and I have to admit it took me a little bit to get used to it. However, once I settled in with the flow of the book, I kind of enjoyed the rhythmic writing of it. The story follows Jacqueline Woodson, or Jackie, or Jack, as her father originally wanted her to be called. Her and her family go through several life changes while she is a child. They move about three times, experience leaving their father and moving in with their grandparents, and they experience their mom leaving to go to New York City, to try and find a home for them there. Jackie was born in 1963 and recalls many memories of what she remembers during this key time period of the civil rights movement. She talks about the “training” she remembers going to in order to keep cool in case anyone gave them a hard time or discriminated against them. She talks about the marches her cousins go to and even her mom while they live in Greenville. Despite the high tension at this time Jackie and her siblings find Greenville to be home, and they seem to not want to move to New York City as their mom does. They have people in their life in Greenville that treat them good and that’s all they want, to stay there. I wished that I could have learned more about why Jackie’s mom wanted so badly to move to New York City. Maybe she just didn’t want her kids living in the south, seeing how upset she got when they said “ain’t” the first time. Maybe it was just her childhood dream, as Jackie’s grandmother it’s what Jackie’s mom and her friends used to always talk about when they were young. Hopefully, we come to find out more, and I am interested to see what life brings them once they are settled in in New York City.