Brown Girl Dreaming

The book I’m reading for this assignment is Brown Girl Dreaming. I fell in love with this book as soon as I started to read it. The style of writing is very different from something I would ever typically select for myself, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to read something outside of my usual taste and discover something new that I enjoy. The book holds so much emotion, controversy, and real-life issues that are so rarely discussed in such an up-front manner, which is something I really appreciate about it. From the very start of the book, the civil rights issues in America are brought up and set the stage for a very open dialogue about these experiences that Jacqueline Woodson faced as a child. The form and structure of this book are definitely part of the book that I would typically not select on my own, and I’ve been able to see how much poetry opens doors for creativity in writing. When you are creating your own patterns and structure, you get to choose exactly how you want your message to come across. In this book particularly, I think the author used the verse style to make complex issues simpler. Using less words and a poetic style allows for a lot of hidden meaning and depth beyond the words themselves. This definitely made me read the text in a different way because it made me think more deeply about what Woodson is saying between the lines. I love the idea of sharing this book with students in my future classroom for that reason alone: it gets you thinking. Having students read this book can open their eyes to a whole new way of thinking about ourselves and the experiences that people go through as humans. This would absolutely fit into a classroom in so many ways that would be extremely beneficial.

 

The following poem is made up of lines from both Brown Girl Dreaming and Enchanted Air:

 

My mother is as familiar as the Greenville air.

Watching her, I learn how to help lost things spring back to life.

God gives you what you need, better not ask for more than that.

But times are changing and people are itching to go where they want.

Spoken stories are no longer enough to fill my hunger.

I hear caged songbirds and wild parrots.

And now coming back home isn’t really coming back home at all.

That it’s a simple verse about forgiveness.

No past, no future, just this perfect now.