Show Way (Reading Log)

 By: Jacqueline Woodson

Published: 2005

Genre: children's book, history

The story of generations of black women from slavery to today, woven through with a quilting theme.

 

My reaction (9.16.2006):

 Absolutely gorgeous. Made me cry. Made me want to write to Ms. Woodson and tell her how fabulous I think it is! (A picture book with power - especially the pages where her drawn characters "react" to the newspaper headlines.)

 

 

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson
Hennepin County Library audiobook 4 discs
read by the author
genre: non-fiction memoir

I had seen positive reviews, but absolutely luxuriated in the author's memories and love of language. Her prose poetry takes us to the places she grew up. I feel as though I've spent time with her grandpa - "Daddy" she calls him, as her own mother does. Her love of words and writing (and the people who either inspired her or shot her down) are fully come to fruition in her adult life. I enjoyed her writing before reading this, and now I love it even more!

This would be good to use alongside All-American Boys and How It Went Down to help students understand why "Black Lives Matter" is such a big thing right now. How sad that little has changed since the Black Panther Movement, in terms of truly equal rights and fair treatment of all people.

Feathers

by Jacqueline Woodson
Hennepin County Library audioCDs 3 discs
narrated by Sisi Aisha Johnson
genre: realistic fiction, relationships

Woodson is one of my favorite authors, but I may need to re-read this short book. Frannie is a sixth grader during the 1970s. Her older brother Shawn is deaf. Her mother is pregnant again after suffering multiple miscarriages. Hope is the thread running throughout the story. Feathers are an analogy for hope. Samantha, the Jesus Boy, Trevor, Ray-Ray . . . all the children's lives have themes that bring them together. Lyrically beautiful . . . not sure how I would "sell" it to middle schoolers.