Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

I honestly do not know how to begin,

Gorgeous writing

Powerful images

So much heart and

So much hope

Every page was a gift - a little window into her soul, heartbreak, grief, joy, family, loneliness, childhood, history, love.

I savoured and then devoured it.

I wish I could buy copies for the world.

This book reached into my ribcage, pulled at my heart, and returned it a little scarred but more healed than it has ever been before.

This book is a memoir written in free verse. It is a non-fiction autobiography.

It takes place in the 1960's and 1970's. 

Jacqueline is an amazing character and reading about her journey through childhood, her discovering her dreams, growing up in the segregated south, her emotions, was like opening a window into the author's soul and getting to experience her story first-hand.

Jacqueline Amanda Woodson was born to Jack Austin Woodson and Mary Anne Irby on February 12th, 1963. Her father was determined that his children would not live a life controlled by the Jim Crow laws, so he desired for the family to live in the north, in Columbus Ohio.

Her mother, Mary Anne, constantly pined for her Greenville, South Caroline home and the fact that her father wasn't comfortable in the south and her mother wasn't comfortable in the north, led to their divorce. Jacqueline was still just a baby.

Mary Anne, Jacqueline and her older siblings Hope and Odella (Dell) returned to South Carolina and moved in with their grandparents - Grandpa Gunnar (Daddy) and Grandma Georgiana. 

Jacqueline's mother starts longing to join her siblings Kay and Robert in Brooklyn, New York and to move her family's home to the city. She leaves for New York and leaves her children with her parent's for long stretches of time as she figures out life in the city.

At this point in the book, the author writes about sipping hot chocolate on the porch, catching fireflies in mason jars, and curling up with her siblings in her grandparent's bed. 

After a while, Mary Anne's letter to home writes about how they will be moving to Brooklyn and that they will also have a younger brother very soon.

When the family moves to Brooklyn, Jacqueline has a hard time getting used to city life and misses the South. This is also a subject that is frequently mentioned throughout the book - her dual homes, Brooklyn and Greenville, and her loyalty to both places.

Now well settled into her New York Life, the author describes what it was like to be a kid in the late 1960's in Bushwick. 

At her school, PS 106, she had teachers who saw the writer in her and helped her hone and develop her skills as well as helping her share her gift with other people.

She also meets her forever best friend Maria, and they become extremely close. It also mentions other situations that take place during this time, her writing and finishing her "butterfly book", her uncle Robert getting into jail, her bond with her siblings - Hope, Dell and Ramon.

Overall a simply beautiful, 

mesmerizing story of a young girl as she searches for her place in the world.

"Brown Girl Dreaming" could not possibly be any more perfect.