Brown Girl Dreaming in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Mar 09, 2017 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

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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Dec 31, 2015 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-reading-challenge, memoir-bio-autobio, audio, poetry, black

What an utterly beautiful, magical, dreamy set of poems about the early life of Jacqueline Woodson. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially the audio version, which is read by Woodson herself. This is a story full of realism, of the dark realities of racism and loss, divorce, death, even of learning disabilities--but when recalled through the eyes of herself as a child, the memories transform into things that are beautiful and magical. painful too, to hear her beloved "daddy" coughing hi ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 Jessica Haider rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir, bipoc-author, poetry, bookriot_2020

Jacqueline Woodson's memoir in verse is targeted at a middle grade audience however, it probably isn't something that my middle grade reader would pick up on his own. I listened to the audio book myself today as I was straightening the house and doing laundry and it was great. The author read it herself, which is as it should be with poetry.

Woodson tells of her childhood split between South Caroline and NYC with her 3 siblings...and of her discovery of her love of writing.

This book counts towa ...more

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Mar 31, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: black-history-and-culture, radical-nonfiction, american-nonfiction, 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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