The Woman Upstairs – 2/5 Stars I found this book because of a list listing “Famous angry women in books” or something. And it’s true that the lead character and narrator of this book is very angry. I was hoping she’d be angrier and less articulate about her anger in this book. What’s this book about? It’s about a woman in her early 40s who was an artist who is also an elementary school teacher. She becomes friends with the mom of one her students. […]
The Day You Begin
Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael Lopez combine their talents in The Day You Begin. The story is how a classroom of children feel like outsiders in their classroom. Told through poetic text, Woodson shows how these two children learn they are not alone. We have all probably felt like Rigoberto and Angelina at least once in our lives. Due to our names, accent, being the new kid at school, at church or another event. Perhaps we are not good at a particular sport or subject or […]
This is a beautiful gem of a book
I don’t actually read poetry that comfortably. I mean this specifically that I don’t read books of poetry that comfortably. I tend to want to finish books and that leads me to moving through poetry too quickly. And so I often avoid collections, and since I teach high school English, I figure I get a decent amount of poetry in my life as a matter of course. Luckily for me, I listened to the audiobook version of this book read by the author and so […]
The Power of Words
Jacqueline Woodson’s 2014 poetic memoir Brown Girl Dreaming won a slew of awards: a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, an NAACP Image Award, just to name a few. It is the beautifully told story of Woodson’s childhood, of the people and environments that formed both her and her dream of becoming a writer. It also offers glimpses into the civil rights movement and the experience of racism through the eyes of a child who witnessed […]