Monday, April 27, 2015

Brown Girl Dreaming Review

Brown Girl Dreaming

Book talk: I'd just read some of the poems aloud.  No description of this book can sell it half as well as a sample from it.  

Rave:  It's hard to write anything about this book that will do it justice.  On the surface it's a memoir about an African American author growing up during the Civil Rights Movement.  But it's not really about any one thing just as a person's life isn't about any one thing.  There are parts about her family, her struggles with learning to read, and how she eventually found her voice as an author. The poems taken together tell a coherent story of her life, but they could just as easily be read separately and stand on their own.  The things Woodson chooses to describe are just as interesting as the way she chooses to describe them.  Above all the language is simply gorgeous.  I'd read about anything and enjoy it if done with this level of beauty and skill.

Every book its reader:  I'd give this to fans of poetry and aspiring authors as well as anyone looking for a story that takes place during the Civil Rights Movement.

Topics, Themes, and Trends: Diversity, Poetry, Authors, Writing, Reading difficulties, The Civil Rights Movement

Extras:

You can learn lots of fun facts about Woodson over at her website including "I can only write with my notebook turned sideways. When I was a kid, I wrote with it turned upside down." and
"I know the lyrics to about a thousand bad songs from the 1970s, including songs from tv commercials and television shows."


Bonus Quotes:

“I believe in one day and someday and this perfect moment called Now.”

“Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen.”

"The empty swing set reminds us of this--
that bad won't be bad forever,
and what is good can sometimes last
a long, long time.”

"My mother has a gap between
her two front teeth. So does Daddy Gunnar.
Each child in this family has the same space
connecting us."

"On paper, things can live forever.
On paper, a butterfly
never dies."

Source: ebook from the public library

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson: buy it or check it out today!

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