From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson

Start date: February 4, 2015

Finish date: February 5, 2015

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What Members Thought

Jan 14, 2015 Lacey Louwagie rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club, memoir, middle-grade, 100-book-challenge-2015, youngadult, poetry, children-s

This was so beautifully written, and I love the idea of doing a memoir in verse. It seemed the perfect format to tell this story, to assemble hundreds of snapshots that make up a life.

I've read a handful of books by Jacqueline Woodson (Feathers, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, The House You Pass on the Way, and The Dear One), and while they were all good, I felt as if something were missing from each of them; there was something that remained open and sad and left me wanting just a little bit ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2015 alana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography-memoir, making-things, non-fiction, females-and-feminists, southernlit, young-adult, teachers-and-pupils, kids-writing, 2015-read-harder

Wow! A memoir told through poems, Brown Girl Dreaming can easily be read by middle grade to high school students in conjunction with so many units of study – autobiography, African-American Civil Rights, American geography and regional differences, urban/rural comparisons, developing artistic talent, and fostering professional ambitions. Though the poems could stand alone and be appreciated individually, the collection progresses smoothly as Woodson draws on her vivid childhood memories and summ ...more

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Feb 24, 2015 Megan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, poetry, autobiography

This was beautifully written. I really wish I had to read books like this in middle school, instead of yet another book about a boy and his dog, or his hatchet (I literally had to read The Hatchet three times in school.)

Seriously though, it was great. I'm not into poetry, but Woodson really captured emotions so well with her writing. The book deserves all the awards it's won. ...more

1 like · Like · see review