Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming
Author: Jacqeline Woodson
Medal: National Book Award, Coretta Scott King, Newbery
Genre: NonFiction
Grades: 5- 7

This book is a memoir of Jacqeline Woodson's childhood as a African American in the 1960's. She spent most of her early childhood in the North but visited her grandparents in the South many times. However, she did not understand why her grandparents loved the South so much because of the segregation that existed there. When Jackie's parents divorced, Jackie and her family moved to the South to live with her grandparents. Jackie learned to love the land of  South Carolina despite the racism and the segregation. She even was involved in peaceful protest marches for civil rights. She found that even with the racism, there were white people in South Carolina that treated her and her family like human beings. Eventually, Jackie moves back to the north and becomes best friends with a Puerto Rican girl. In the North, she decides that she wants to be a writer. Each summer, Jackie and her siblings visit their grandparents but sadly her grandfather's health was getting worse. Unfortunately, while New York, Jackie's little brother got in trouble and went to jail. Jackie starts following Angela from the Black Panther movement. She continues to go to school and is excited to make plans to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer.