Brown Girl Dreaming

Woodson, Jacqueline. (2014). Brown Girl Dreaming. New York, NY: Penguin.

Genre: Autobiography

Format: Poetry

Awards: Coretta Scott King Award, National Book Award, Newbery Honor Book, Poetry Foundation Pegasus Award

Lexile Measure: 990L

DRA:50

AR: 5.0

Jacqueline Woodson Official Website

Reading Guide for Jacqueline Woodson's Books

Summary: Jacqueline is born in Ohio in 1963. Her mother decides to move the family to South Carolina, living their father behind in the North. When her mother struggles to support the family, she moves to New York to find work living the grandparents to raise all three kids. Jacqueline and her brothers are loved by their grandparents and live a happy life. When her mom is financially stable, she returns for her kids and takes them back to New York. Jacqueline struggles to get accustom to the city and misses the country life, and most of all her grandparents. She finds comfort writing stories and poetry, that's her way of shortening the distance between South Carolina and New York and keeping both worlds, her mother and her grandparents. 

Reader Response: Jacqueline Woodson uses poetry in Black Girl Dreaming to teach us more than just her childhood biography. She uses poetry to teach us history- life during segregation, marches for civil rights, the sit-ins,  and the non-violent movement protests. She uses poetry to teach us about different religions, her grandmother is Jehovah Witness and her uncle is Muslim. She also uses poetry to teach us how literature can help us find ourselves, just like she found refuge in books. Teachers can use this book to teach a unit about poetry, autobiographies and the Civil Rights Movement.

Other books by Jacqueline Woodson:

Last Stop on Market Street

De La Peña, Matt. (2015). New York, NY: Penguin Young Readers Group.

Book Trailer by Scholastic

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Awards: Newberry Medal Winner and Caldecott Honor Book

Lexile Measure: AD610L

DRA: 24

AR:2.4

De La Peña Official Website

Summary: After church CJ and his Nana ride the bus to their regular stop on Market Street. CJ is unhappy and asks Nana why they have to walk in the rain? Why they have to ride the bus? Why do they get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is answer with positiveness. Nana makes CJ see the beauty in the world around him- the live music on the bus, conversations with bus riders, and everything that makes his neighbors and neighborhood special. 

Reader Response: As I read this book I started to make a text to text connection with Rosa by Nikki Geovanni. Both stories take place in a bus, but in a different time period with different social behaviors. Both stories can be read together to show students how society evolves over time and to compare and contrast a bus ride from then and now. Rosa's book teaches students to see the struggles of inequality. Last Stop on Market Street teaches students to see the beauty in everything and everyone and the blessings of helping each other and treating everyone equally. 

Other books by De La Peña:

Rosa

Giovanni, Nikki. (2005). New York, NY: Holt.

Genre: Biography

Awards: Caldecott Award and Coretta Scott King Award

Lexile Measure: 900L

DRA: 50

AR: 5.1

Summary: After a very long day of work, Rosa Parks rode the public bus back home. She refused to give her seat to a white person and go back to the end of the bus or ride standing like the segregation laws required black people to do. She was arrested for standing up for her rights. Her courages actions evoked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a cry for equal rights. Rosa Park became one of the most influential figures  in the Civil Rights Movement.

Reader Response: This narrative poetry book brings tribute to one of the most influential women's in U.S. history. The cut out pictures and the rhyming verses makes the retelling of Rosa's life more unique. This is a book that should not only be read during Black History Month, but during Women's History Month, Hero Week at schools and/or  a daily read aloud in class to expose children to stand up for what is right. It can also be included in the classroom library when learning about poetry or events in history.

Nikki Giovanni Official Website
PoetryFoundation.org

Other poetry books for children that focus on the Civil Rights Movement:

Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport

The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield

Out of My Mind

Draper, Sharon. (2010). Out of My Mind. New York, NY: Athenum.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Awards: New York Times Best Seller List

Lexile Measure: 700L

DRA: 40

AR: 4.3

Sharon Draper Official Website
Out of My Mind Reading Guide

Summary: Melody is an 11 year old who was born with cerebral-palsy. Despite her disability, she is very smart thanks to her photographic memory. Melody can remember and memorize everything she sees and hears, except she's unable to communicate it to others because she can't speak or write. Her doctors and teachers don't think she is capable of learning. Fortunately she is surrounded by group of people that support her and believe in her, her family, her neighbor, and her school aid. When Melody is mainstream to a regular classroom, she is encourage and coached by her support group to enter a school contest using a speech device. She is able to learn all the information to take her team to the finals, but she realizes her classmates and teacher still doubt her capabilities.

Reader Response: Sharon Draper does an extraordinary job giving kids who feel invisible because of their disability a chance to be heard. She describes in fine detail the daily challenges of Melody; her frustration of being babied intellectually, the arguments between her parents, her struggles to dress and eat, and trying to fit in at school. The author gives the reader the opportunity to know and feel what disabled students can go through at school and their personal lives. It is eye opening to read how some teachers in Melody's life made a positive impact in her education like her music teacher, but other teachers made her feel incompetent in class, like Mr. Dimming. This book serves as a mirror to see how we react to people with disabilities.

Other award winning books by Sharon Draper:

El Deafo

Bell, Cece. (2014). El Deafo. New York, NY: Abrams Books.

Author Cece Bell talks about her book El Deafo, video by Abrams Books.

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Graphic Novel

Awards: Newberry Honor Book

Lexile Measure: GN420L

DRA: 40

AR: 2.7

Author's Website

National Association of the Deaf

Cece Bell interview by The Guardian

Summary: Cece lost her hearing at age 4 and needs to wear a strap hearing aid. She is the only deaf kid at her school. Cece doesn't like the look of her hearing aid, she hates the stares she gets from other kids, and most of all she hates when people speak to her slow and loud. Her hearing aid makes Cece feel uncomfortable around others and lowers her self esteem, until one day she discovers her strap hearing aid has special powers. She is able to hear everything her teacher says through her hearing aid that's connected to the small microphone her teacher has to wear. Being able to hear the teacher's private conversations, Cece feels invisible and turns her disability into a superpower. 

Reader Response:  The author, Cece Bell writes her childhood autobiography and living with deafness using the charismatic character, Cece the Bunny. Using speech balloons the author shows what the character is hearing or not hearing in the story. This graphic novel does a great job of teaching students about hearing loss and deafness in a kid friendly way. It is easy to read for low grade level students, but it's content and themes of wanting to fit in and overcoming obstacles relates to all students. The graphic novel can be use to teach students skills in visual literacy. 

Other books by the Cece Bell: