Brown Girl Dreaming: Part V-Author's Note

by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of autobiographical poems, Jacqueline Woodson vividly brings her childhood and adolescence to life. This memoir in verse won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Newbery Honor Award.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V–Author's Note

Here is a link to our list for Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. blur
    make less distinct or clear
    After Daddy dies
    spring blurs into summer
    then winter comes on too cold and fast...
  2. gravity
    the force of attraction between all masses in the universe
    ...Counting,
    Ten, twenty, thirty, forty deep into the winter until
    one afternoon
    gravity releases me and my feet fly free in the ropes,
    fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety...
  3. destiny
    a course of events that will inevitably happen in the future
    Everything happens for a reason, my mother
    says. Then tells me how Kay believed
    in fate and destiny—everything
    that ever happened or was going to happen
    couldn't ever be avoided...
  4. don
    put on clothes
    Before Dominican daughters donned quinceanera
    dresses and walked proudly down Bushwick Avenue—

    Before young brown boys in cutoff shorts spun their
    first tops and played their first games of skelly on
    Bushwick Streets—

    Before any of that, this place was called Boswijck,

    settled by the Dutch
    and Franciscus the Negro, a former slave
    who bought his freedom.
  5. organization
    a group of people who work together
    ...We dream
    of running away to California
    to join the Black Panthers
    the organization Angela is a part of.
  6. revolution
    a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking
    Don't wait for your school to teach you, my uncle says,
    about the revolution. It's happening in the streets.
  7. carousel
    a large, rotating machine with seats for children to ride
    When I hear the word
    revolution
    I think of the carousel with
    all those beautiful horses
    going around as though they'll never stop and me
    choosing the purple one each time, climbing up onto it
    and reaching for the golden ring, as soft music plays.
  8. feminist
    a supporter of equal rights for women
    ...She is a feminist, she tells us
    and thirty fifth-grade hands bend into desks
    where our dictionaries wait to open yet another

    world to us...
  9. recite
    render verbally
    And standing in front of the class
    taking my poem from her
    my voice shakes as I recite the first line:

    Black brothers, Black sisters, all of them were great....
  10. evolution
    sequence of events involved in the development of a species
    I believe in God and evolution.
  11. nonviolence
    peaceful resistance to a government
    I believe in nonviolence and "Power to the People."
  12. etch
    cause to stand out or be clearly defined or visible
    Still, it felt as though each of them was with me—they're all deeply etched now, into memory.
  13. continuum
    an extent in which no part is distinct from adjacent parts
    I know now my stories are part of a continuum—my aunt is a storyteller. So were my mom and my grandmother.
  14. complicated
    difficult to analyze or understand
    I think my life was very complicated and very rich.
  15. ordinary
    lacking special distinction, rank, or status
    Looking back on it, I think my life was at once ordinary and amazing.
Created on Wed Dec 02 13:18:38 EST 2015 (updated Mon Jul 14 18:54:41 EDT 2025)

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