Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline Woodson grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, graduating from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children. Among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a four-time National Book Award finalist, and a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. Her book, Another Brooklyn, was even our 2018 One Book, One Philadelphia selection!
If you haven’t picked up one of her titles yet, here are some suggestions to get you started:
Before the Ever After
ZJ's friends Ollie, Darry and Daniel help him cope when his father, a beloved professional football player, suffers severe headaches and memory loss that spell the end of his career.
Harbor Me
When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world.
Brown Girl Dreaming
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares 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.
Show Way
The making of "show ways" or quilts, which once served as secret maps for freedom-seeking slaves, is a tradition passed from mother to daughter in the author's family.
Coming On Home Soon
After Mama takes a job in Chicago during World War II, Ada Ruth stays with Grandma but misses her mother who loves her more than rain and snow.
Our Gracie Aunt
When a brother and sister are taken to stay with their mother's sister because their mother neglects them, they wonder if they will see their mother again.
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
The close and loving relationship between a teenager and his single mother takes a heavy hit in this intense story that will leave readers moved and reassured.
These are just some of Jacqueline Woodson’s many books, written over an amazing 30 year career, that are available in our catalog.
Where will you begin reading? Let us know in the comments!
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