Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
Penguin Group, 2014. Nonfiction. 336 p.

This is a memoir of the early childhood of the author. She was born in Ohio in 1963, but her parents split up when she was very young and she went to live with her grandparents in South Carolina. There she was able to see and experience the under-currents of the Civil Rights Movement first hand. Then, when she was school age, she moved to New York and learned to be a city girl. It will be interesting to children that Ms Woodson saw her sister as the bookish "good student," and her brother as a wiz at science, so she felt like the academically untalented one of the family. Yet she is the one who has become a famous author. The book is written in lyric free verse that paints vivid pictures of all Woodson's experiences. It is not surprising that this book won a long list of awards, including the National Book Award and the Newbery Honor Medal. It is available in print, recorded book CD, e-book, and e-audiobook. The audio version is read by the author.

Comments

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Search This Blog