Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming is the kind of book you hold others up to. This is the bar for other books. This is a must read!
I picked up this book months ago because I heard so many amazing things. Award after award after award. (Spoiler: all deserved!) And I knew she was an incredible author. Slam dunk. However, I couldn’t get into the writing style. The short chapters were oh-so helpful running on zero sleep with a teething cutie on my hands. But the stop-and-start felt jumpy to me.
Enter the audiobook! Huzzah! Woodson’s voice is one of the best I’ve ever heard. She could have been reading my grocery list or the ingredients in Pop Tarts (scary, but so tasty) and I would have sat there open-mouthed hanging on every syllable. Get the audiobook if you can.
Jacqueline shares her childhood during the 60s and 70s in this free verse memoir. She tells of her parents’ marriage falling apart and moving to another state. Of building a relationship with her grandparents. Of moving to yet another state. School. Making a best friend. What anyone could share as one upheaval after another with anger or resentment, she oozes wisdom.
I cannot imagine on any level. Being Black at that time. The racial inequality on every level. Moving to the deep south in the 60s. Traveling by train to and from the south to New York in the train car for Black people. Not having a formal education starting super young. The list goes on.
What I took away from this (besides a deep, deep desire for a follow-up book) was how brave Woodson and her family were. Their perseverance to just. keep. going. What a testament to true grit. I loved this book.