Is there anyone on the planet who hasn’t heard my about my love for Brown Girl Dreaming?
I’ve reviewed the book, talked about what a FANGIRL fool I acted in front of her. TWICE. If you’re looking for a book for 9-12 year olds, this is the one. Don’t let the prose style scare you away. Prose is just a fancy way to say, words on a page. After a while, you catch the flow, and much like iambic pentameter, you just naturally flow with the rhythm.
Young readers will learn how tough it was for young Jackie to assimilate down South in the 60s after she was used to behaving a certain way in the North. Most people forget to include a child’s perspective in the Civil Rights movement, but here it is. Easy to understand. Why can’t we go anywhere we want? Why do we have to walk with our eyes downcast? These are the questions that children want answered.
Woodson speaks to them in a way that they can understand that doesn’t belittle their intelligence and that is also beautiful.
In the stores downtown
we’re always followed around
just because we’re brown.
Beautiful, right?
Add this to your Diversity Reading Challenge!