Brown Girl Dreaming

This one is pushing the limits of my list in a couple of different ways – it is technically not a novel, but rather a memoir in verse.

It’s also a middle grade work rather than an adult novel. I’m including it here because I feel it’s one of those books for children that every adult should read. The prose is beautiful, and the author’s coming-of-age story is a tale of resilience, love, and family. The author invokes the ghosts of her ancestors in a way that lends a bit of magic to the work.

Jacqueline Woodson is a National Book Award Newbury and Coretta Scott King winner. But I know her as a great friend.

Brown Girl Dreaming is about her growing up in South Carolina during the 1960s and 1970s. My memoir Defiant takes places a few years before Brown Girl Dreaming. But the South was still the South, and segregation was still segregation. A great read from an outstanding writer.    

Written in verse, this book is the rare piece of literature that has something to offer every single age group. I can imagine holding a baby and whispering Woodson’s poetry into their open ears. I can picture my own middle grade reader curled up on a couch being transported for the first time by the magic of Woodson’s language. And I remember my first encounter with this book as a grown up, read in a single sitting with a cup of coffee growing cold next to me as I absorbed Woodson’s captivating story. Which is to say, I don’t care… show more.

Brown Girl Dreaming is an absolutely beautiful book. I found the writing simply stunning, with images that stayed with me long after I finished reading. I also loved the use of a variety of poetic forms and found the haiku especially effective in delivering powerful moments with a punch. 

This book is a memoir, based on Woodson’s years growing up in a tumultuous time to be a brown girl, placing YA readers in her head and heart during those years. It’s no wonder that this heartfelt book won so many of the industry’s top awards.