My Never Ending List

It’s like a soft blanket, the voice of Morgan Freeman reading out loud to me, the purring of a kitten, Woodson words were warm and heartfelt as I read Brown Girl Dreaming, not wanting to put the book down. The words just flowing along like a babbling brook even though the text itself is not tranquil, it is the way the author strings the words together that brought harmony to its composition. Written in verse, Jacqueline tells her families story. Her father is content and determined to maintain his Northern upbringing while her mother loves the South. There is conflict among the parents but in the end, mother returns to her childhood home with the children. The South, the home is surrounded with love, laughter, restrictions and family. Shared with their grandparents, the privilege of massaging grandmother’s feet after she returns from daywork, put smiles on my face. The children’s anticipation of her stories, the author created this beautiful picture of this loving exchange between the generations. Mother wants to create her own home and heads North, the children staying with the grandparents where they influence the children more as the South engrains more into their minds. Jacqueline honesty and the ability to see the world through her eyes has me laughing and smiling as she sees and says things firsthand. It’s a story only Jacqueline can tell, for if anyone else were to tell the same story, it would not have the same effect. It’s a fantastic book, definitely worth reading once, twice or many times.

“Our mama shushes us, says,

It’s too late for presents and the like.

But we want presents and the like. “       (their Uncle Robert came to see them)

“And when we are called by our names

my grandmother

makes them all one

HopeDellJackie

but my grandfather

takes his own sweet time, saying each

as if he has all day long

or a whole lifetime.”