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An Odyssey of Dreams

The good news is that Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming was, deservedly, awarded the 2014 National Book Award for young people’s literature, following two prior times as NBA finalist for her works Locomotion (2003) and Hush (2002). The well recognized Jacqueline Woodson is, as well, winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, recipient of three Newbery honors, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and short-listed for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for lasting contributions to children’s literature. Her writing resume is as replete as this book is remarkable. Brown Girl Dreaming is the story, a memoir of sorts, of Woodson’s early life told entirely in free verse. Each page is a poetic evocation of some aspect of her childhood—a glimpse into a child’s soul—while cumulatively articulating the special joys of becoming a writer. While the book tells of an individual life, it simultaneously portrays a compelling social history. Intended for readers of the middle grades, ages 10-16, it turns out to be a rare gift for all of us, regardless of age, race, or gender. Those of us of a certain age (boomers) know that the past sixty years or so have witnessed astonishing social, cultural, and political change in America— changes involving race relations, women’s rights, environmental awareness, education, and far more. In this connection, Woodson’s story is both personal and about her times, her country. Lorraine Hansberry once said, “To create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.” Woodson, in seeking to cast a wide yet particular net, wisely cites a few tone-setting lines about dreams from Langston Hughes’s (1902-1967) “Dreams” on the frontispiece of the book: