Brown Girl Dreaming in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 09, 2017 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, poetry, memoir-and-autobiographical-essays

This book just didn't work for me. Yes, I am cold and I have no heart.

What I didn't understand until I'd started reading this was that this is not a memoir told in verse, as the blurb indicates, but instead it's a book of poems that together tell a story of the author's childhood. Some of the poems are quite nice (I never really achieved "mesmerizing" as the blurb promises), but some of them are irritating, they don't feel like natural poems, they feel like stream-of-consciousness sentences with This book just didn't work for me. Yes, I am cold and I have no heart.

What I didn't understand until I'd started reading this was that this is not a memoir told in verse, as the blurb indicates, but instead it's a book of poems that together tell a story of the author's childhood. Some of the poems are quite nice (I never really achieved "mesmerizing" as the blurb promises), but some of them are irritating, they don't feel like natural poems, they feel like stream-of-consciousness sentences with somewhat random carriage returns sprinkled in. I think I would have liked this book a lot more if it wasn't trying to be a book of poems. I love poetry. And I love memoirs, and Woodson's story is mesmerizing, but the verse form memoir didn't work for me.

other people’s memory

You were born in the morning, Grandma Georgiana said.
I remember the sound of the birds. Mean
old blue jays squawking. They like to fight, you know.
Don’t mess with blue jays!
I hear they can kill a cat if they get mad enough.

And then the phone was ringing.
Through all that static and squawking, I heard
your mama telling me you’d come.
Another girl, I stood there thinking,
so close to the first one.
Just like your mama and Caroline. Not even
a year between them and so close, you could hardly tell
where one ended and the other started.
And that’s how I know you came in the morning.
That’s how I remember.

You came in the late afternoon, my mother said.
Two days after I turned twenty-two.
Your father was at work.
Took a rush hour bus
trying
to get to you. But
by the time he arrived,
you were already here.
He missed the moment, my mother said,
but what else is new.

You’re the one that was born near night,
my father says.
When I saw you, I said, She’s the unlucky one
come out looking just like her daddy.
He laughs. Right off the bat, I told your mama,
We’re gonna call this one after me.

My time of birth wasn’t listed
on the certificate, then got lost again
amid other people’s bad memory.

I feel like a cold-hearted jerk for not being blown away by this like everyone else seems to be. But there you have it: I'm a cold-hearted, soulless jerk. I guess a book-in-verse is not my thing.

The author's note at the end was much more interesting to me than all the versifying in the rest of the book, so I look forward to reading a prose-form book from Woodson. ...more

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May 15, 2023 Holly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-built-for-2, newberry-award-winner, national-book-award-winner, audio, 2023

I'm a little conflicted about this book. I really wanted to love this memoir told in verse, but I think that listening to it was a disservice. My husband and I listened to it on a road trip and we both agreed that we think that it would have benefitted from us having read it as opposed to listening to it--especially because, in verse, the layout of the words and sentences means something and that is lost when you listen to it.

I have to confess, this is only the fourth book I've ever listened to ...more

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Mar 31, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: radical-nonfiction, american-nonfiction, black-history-and-culture, poetry, young-adult-fiction, children-s-fiction, nyc

This book is gorgeous. A memoir written in verse, of a childhood that witnessed well more than its fair share of tragedy. It's also a distinctly Black book, echoing so many archetypal African-American experiences - experiences that actually all happened in a short span of Woodson's childhood. Beautiful and inspiring, the book is a perfect read for first-time poetry readers as well as poetry lovers. And the cover alone would have been enough to make me pick it up, but it also won the Newbery Meda ...more

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Mar 29, 2015 Celeste rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, memoir

Not surprisingly, this book is amazing. Jacqueline Woodson is one of my favorite authors, and her lyrical memoir in verse may be my favorite thing she has written. In Brown Girl Dreaming, Civil Rights Demonstrations, the Black Power movement, the meaning of family, faith, and hope all weave into the story of Woodson's coming of age. Her dream of becoming a writer shines throughout--from the very basic learning to read and write her own name, to her first book of poems created on paper bound hers ...more

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Aug 28, 2015 Lua rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ccpl, more-memoirs

Here's another book with a reference to one of my uncle's songs - yay - page 128 in my copy - "On the radio, a man with a soft deep voice is telling us to have ourselves a merry little..." ...more

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Jun 13, 2015 Maria rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, social-issues, children-s-literature, memoirs, own, 2015

Such a beautiful work. It will stay with me for a long time.

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Mar 30, 2017 Journeywoman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: w-read-in-2017, kids-ya-books-for-me

This might be one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.
The stories, told in blank verse, were amazing and touching.

It deserves all the praise and awards it has been given.

I will say this though, I think it is more for adults than children. It would take a very mature kid to be able to glean all the goodness from this book that is there.

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