17. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

 

17. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Cover art

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. NY: Penguin

This story is a memoir of Jacqueline Woodson growing up in 1960’s and 1970’s America during the Civil Rights Movement.  The story begins when Jacqueline is born in Ohio to Jack and Mary Ann Woodson.  She has two older siblings-Hope and Odella.  When she is one, her mother leaves her father and moves her and her siblings to South Carolina where they all live with her parents.  Their mother moves to New York City to begin a new life.  After a time, she goes back to South Carolina to bring Jacqueline and her siblings to New York.  She is also pregnant with Roman, their last sibling.  The story continues about Jacqueline and her siblings’ life in New York.  They go back and spend summers in South Carolina until their grandfather passes and their grandmother moves to New York with them. 

This book is not only a memoir, it is a poem written in free verse.  It is full of literary elements and devices.  One such is imagery.  She uses the ribbons in the story to represent sense of innocence and youth.  She even writes a poem about the ribbons on page 121.  Not only is the book good for studying literary elements, it is an excellent book to use as a resource when teaching about the Civil Rights movement.  She discusses her experiences as an African American in the south when in South Carolina and then her experiences as an African American in New York City.  This would be good for compare and contrast.

I found two different teaching resources for this book.  The first focuses on the literary aspect of the book.  The second discusses more of the historical aspect of the book

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploring-perspectives-desegregation-using-31133.html?tab=1#tabs

https://oh01913306.schoolwires.net/cms/lib/OH01913306/Centricity/Domain/207/BROWN%20GIRL%20DREAMING%20BY%20JACQUELINE%20WOODSON%20TEACHER%20RESOURCE.pdf


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