Jacqueline Woodson's (Locomotion; Feathers) inspired memoir--winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature--is told entirely in verse, bringing readers into her family's most intimate moments.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1963, Jacqueline and her siblings move with their mother to her girlhood home in Greenville, S.C., after her parents separate. Greenville is a place filled with wonder, faith, family and laughter. As their mother looks for a new home for them in New York City, Jacqueline and her siblings find abundant love and comfort with their grandparents. Woodson delicately weaves into her family's stories her own path to becoming a writer, alongside historical events that simmer alternately in the background and foreground involving the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the Black Panthers. "This is the way brown people have to fight," her grandfather tells her during the Greenville sit-ins. "You can't just put your fist up. You have to insist/ on something/ gently. Walk toward a thing/ slowly./ But be ready to die,/ my grandfather says,/ for what is right."
Woodson offers readers an accessible, first-hand look at African American childhood during decades of tremendous turmoil and change. Her observations, through the eyes of a child trying to make sense of her world, allow readers, too, to experience her childhood-defining moments. --Kyla Paterno