Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Book title: Brown Girl Dreaming
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: Memoir, novel in verse
Published: August 28, 2014
337 pages
My rating: 5/5

Brown Girl Dreaming is Jacqueline Woodson’s memoir or autobiographical novel in verse about her youth in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Born in Ohio and raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In her poems, she talks about growing up as a brown girl, her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement, and her love of stories even while she struggled to learn to read.

I was maybe expecting a novel in verse to be more poetic, but Woodson’s poems read almost like prose. I don’t know if this is because I read the book in a Finnish translation and poems are notoriously difficult to translate, or if the translation accurately captures Woodson’s style. Whether the lack of lyricism is a minus is a matter of taste. I probably only paid attention to it because I’m not the target audience for this middle grade book. The prose-like style makes the book easy to read and understand for younger readers.

This book introduces middle grade and teenage readers to important social movements of the 20th century. Due to its subject matter, it’s a book every adult should read as well. If you want more plot and action, this book might not be for you, but if you enjoy quiet snapshots of a girl growing up, I think you’ll enjoy this. I gave Brown Girl Dreaming five stars.