Jacqueline Woodson is an award-winning author known for writing books that address important topics for children such as racism and social justice. She grew up in both the South and North and was influenced by these different experiences. Some of her most notable books include Brown Girl Dreaming, which tells her story in verse form, The Other Side which addresses racism, and After Tupac and D Foster which follows three girls coming of age in the 1990s. Woodson's books use realistic characters and themes to discuss difficult subjects in a way that is understandable for young readers.

1. JACQUELINE
WOODSON

2. Jacqueline Woodson Biography
◦ Jacqueline Woodson was born is Columbus
on February 12, 1963.
◦ She grew up in Greenville, and Brooklynn.
◦ She was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, but she
is not practicing now. Her family blamed
her not practicing anymore on the sorority
she was in.

3. Biography Cont.
◦ Growing up in two different places (North and
South) she realized that she was meant to live in
New York, but still had southern tendency’s. She
would say hi to random strangers and in New
York they don’t say hi back. Her daughter was
very confused by this.
◦ She is married to a woman, and has two kids. A
daughter named Toshi Georgianna and a son
named, Jackson-Leroi.
◦ As a kid she did not like sitting still, her favorite
subject was English, and she loved gym and
Spanish as well.
◦ Her favorite books were anything written by
Virginia Hamilton or Judy Blume as a child.

4. Books that have personal content
◦ Brown Girl Dreaming
◦ She started researching my life, asking relatives and talking to
friends – and mostly, just letting herself remember. It tells the
story of her childhood, in verse. Raised in South Carolina and New
York, I always felt halfway home in each place. In these poems, I
share what it was like to grow up as an African American in the
1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her
growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
◦ Visiting Day
◦ once a month when she was a little girl, she would go upstate and
visit her favorite uncle. She remembered those days well and
wanted to write about them. This book isn’t completely
autobiographical but there is a lot of her in it.
◦ Sweet Memory
◦ I wrote this book in memory of my grandfather, Ganaar, who was
a gardener. Whenever I see beautiful gardens filled with
vegetables or flowers, I think of him.
◦ Show way
◦ After her grandmother died and her daughter was born, she
wanted to figure out a way to hold on to all the amazing history in
her family. She wanted a Show Way for her own daughter.

5. Notable Awards and Honors
◦ Coretta Scott King Award (2001 and 2015)
◦ The Margaret Edwards Award (2006)
◦ National book Award for Young People’s Literature (2014)
◦ Caldecott Honor Book (2004)
◦ Newberry Honor (2005, 2007, and 2008)
◦ Skipping Stones Honor Award (2003)
◦ Time of Wonder Award (2001)
◦ Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award (Honor) (2004)
◦ Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Master List California Young Reader Medal Nominee (2003-2004)
◦ ALA Notable (2005)
◦ Child Magazine Best (2004)
◦ Jane Addams Peace Award (2013)
◦ Charlotte Zolotow Award (2013)
◦ Best Book of 2012 – School Library Journal

6. Childhood
◦ Growing up Jacqueline wanted to be a teacher, a lawyer, or a hairdresser, but she discovered her
true passion was writing.
◦ She wrote on everything, in school she was such a good writer she impressed her teachers and
peers.
◦ She realized in school that a lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your
stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people
thinking you were strange.
◦ She was the girl sitting in the back of the room that couldn't sit still or stop talking. But, when
she wrote a paper or anything for school she was praised.

7. Why she wanted to write
◦ She wanted to write books that kids can relate to.
◦ Woodson chooses subjects that she thinks kids should be able to read about — even if they're
topics that are hard to explain or uncomfortable to talk about.
◦ All her books are about caring for one another and showing how important that is.
◦ Show love in all its many forms.

8. Using her books in my classroom
◦ The authors books and the illustrations in the books are so life like. They are very relatable. They
talk about the difficult subjects that children don’t quite understand, and put them in a way that
they will understand them. These books should be included in my classroom to show my
students that no matter what they look like on the outside they are all the same on the inside.
◦ I chose Jacqueline Woodson as my author to learn more about because she writes about
important issues, in a way they can be communicated to young children. Kids know about this
issues, but they don understand them.
◦ My culturally responsive topic is racism. Jacqueline Woodson has many books that talk about
racism in a socially acceptable way that children can understand. I can use a lot of her books for
lessons to teach my students.
◦ Overall I want my students to know they should all love each other the same and treat each
other with kindness.

9. 5 Books I chose
1. This is the Rope
2. The Other Side
3. Show Way
4. Brown Girl Dreaming
5. After Tupac and D Foster

10. This is the Rope
◦ This is a fictive memoir. From the early 1900s until the mid 1970s, more than 6 million African Americans
moved from the rural south to northern cities. This novel is inspired by those families and by my own Mom,
who moved from Greenville, South Carolina to Brooklyn, New York in 1968.

11. The Other Side
◦ This book is about an African American girl name Clover and a White girl named Annie. Clover is told by her
mom not to go on the other side of the fence. Clover follows those orders but her and Annie managed to
find loop holes.

12. Show Way
◦ This is the first time she had written a book based on some of her own family history. ’Show
Ways”, or quilts, once served as secret maps for freedom-seeking slaves. This is the story of
seven generations of girls and women who were quilters and artists and freedom fighters.

13. Brown Girl Dreaming
◦ Brown Girl Dreaming tells the story of her childhood, in verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, I
always felt halfway home in each place. In these poems, I share what it was like to grow up as an African
American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the
Civil Rights movement. It also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact
that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired and stayed with her, creating the first
sparks of the writer she was to become.

14. After Tupac and D Foster
◦ The first time Tupac is shot, D Foster walks into the lives of Neeka and her best friend. From that point
on, no one’s world is ever the same. D Foster lives with her foster mom who lets her roam while Neeka
and the narrator aren’t even allowed to leave their block. But the three soon realize they have a lot in
common – including their love of Tupac – his lyrics, his life, the way he keeps on keeping on and this
helps them move through the years between 11 and 13 in search of their Big Purpose even as the
narrator’s brother is wrongly accused of a crime and gets sent to jail and D’s absent mom keeps
disappointing her.