In the poem, “A Girl Named Jack,” Woodson explains why she was named Jacqueline. As an extension, ask students to look at their own lives and what experiences could serve as the “roots” of stories for them. A list of potential picturebooks to use in this activity are provided below. In this activity, gather as many of Woodson’s picturebooks as possible ( We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, The Other Side, Our Gracie Aunt, Visiting Day, Pecan Pie Baby, This is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration) and ask students to identify the “roots” of the books in Brown Girl Dreaming. The small and big moments in my life aren’t necessarily my life once they reach the pages” She even provides examples of three books, Locomotion, Coming On Home Soon, and Behind You, that are “emotionally autobiographical,” with explanation on how. But it is always emotionally autobiographical-every feeling my characters have had is a feeling I have had. Woodson states on her website, “My work is not always physically autobiographical.

Readers of Brown Girl Dreaming who are familiar with Woodson’s books will make many connections between her life and the experiences described in many of her books. The “Roots” of Stories in Life Experiences She reveals how the telling of stories or the creation of songs came to her easily and how she felt a comfort and rightness in the space between the words she put together.Ĭross-Curricular Connections: Social Studies/History, Geography, Biology Woodson shares her struggles with reading and the comparisons made between her and her sister, who was an avid reader. She tells of her time spent in Kingdom Hall and going from door to door as a Jehovah’s Witness spreading the message of salvation. Woodson writes of her brothers and sister, her grandparents, her aunts and uncle, her mother and her father, who has not been a part of the family since she was very young. Life in the North, in New York City, brings Woodson experiences of diversity, including a Puerto Rican best friend, Maria.

Her time in Greenville, SC, brings her face-to-face with the civil rights movement and life in the post-Jim Crow south. Vivo says to her, “You’re a writer.” Although she was born in Ohio, Woodson didn’t spend much time there, but rather her life was punctuated by years, and later summers, in South Carolina with her grandparents and life in New York City. Woodson starts from her birth and traces her family and life up through fifth grade, when her teacher Ms. Later, she uses her voice to reach out to others and to speak for the underrepresented. However, it is so much more than this-it is the record of how a young girl discovers her voice through writing and grows to become a beloved author for children and young adults. (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014)īrown Girl Dreaming is Woodson’s memoir in verse of her early life.

Our Gracie Aunt by Jacqueline Woodson