Brown Girl Dreaming (book)

I am not made of just paper and ink. I am made of memories, like pictures in a photo album. I hold the feeling of warm sunshine in South Carolina and the noisy, exciting sounds of a big city called Brooklyn. Inside my pages, you can find the story of a little girl figuring out her world, her family's love, and the questions in her heart. My pages are filled with feelings of hope, moments of sadness, and the joy of finding your own voice. I am a very special collection of thoughts from a girl as she grew up. I am a book, and my name is Brown Girl Dreaming.

A wonderful woman named Jacqueline Woodson created me. She wanted to share the story of her own childhood with the world. She gathered all her memories from when she was a girl growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. She remembered living in Ohio, the smell of the red dirt in South Carolina, and the busy streets of New York City. Instead of writing in long paragraphs, she wrote my story in poems. Each poem is like a little song, a snapshot of a moment in her life. This makes my story feel like you are right there with her, dreaming her dreams. After years of careful work, I was finally ready, and on August 28th, 2014, I was published and sent out into the world for children to read.

When children opened my covers, something special happened. For some kids, reading my words was like looking in a mirror—they saw a girl whose life and feelings felt a lot like their own. For other kids, I was like a window, letting them peek into a different time and place and learn about a life different from theirs. People thought my story was important because it showed that every person's childhood is a story worth telling. In 2014, I even won a special prize called the National Book Award. I am here to remind everyone that your story matters. Just like Jacqueline, you have a beautiful story inside of you, waiting to be told.