Celebrate Black Voices and join in the 2022 Power of Words by reading one of Jacqueline Woodson's books.


Compiled by:
Paula G.O.
After Tupac & D Foster

Jacqueline Woodson

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.


Another Brooklyn

Jacqueline Woodson

For August, running into a long-ago friend sets in motion resonant memories and transports her to a time and a place she thought she had mislaid: 1970s Brooklyn, where friendship was everything. August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi shared confidences as they ambled their neighborhood streets, a place where the girls believed that they were amazingly beautiful, brilliantly talented, with a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful promise there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where mothers disappeared, where fathers found religion, and where madness was a mere sunset away. Woodson heartbreakingly illuminates the formative period when a child meets adulthood -- when precious innocence meets the all-too-real perils of growing up.


Before the Ever After

Jacqueline Woodson

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.


Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. 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. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.


Coming On Home Soon

Jacqueline Woodson

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.


The Day You Begin

Jacqueline Woodson

Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself. Later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Each Kindness

Jacqueline Woodson

When Ms. Albert teaches a lesson on kindness, Chloe realizes that she and her friends have been wrong in making fun of new student Maya's shabby clothes and refusing to play with her. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Feathers

Jacqueline Woodson

When a new, white student nicknamed "The Jesus Boy" joins her sixth grade class in the winter of 1971, Frannie's growing friendship with him makes her start to see some things in a new light.


From the Notebooks of MelaninSun

Jacqueline Woodson

Fourteen-year-old MelaninSun's comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman.


Harbor Me

Jacqueline Woodson

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with no adults to listen in. They discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.


Hush

Jacqueline Woodson

Twelve-year-old Toswiah finds her life changed when her family enters the witness protection program.


If You Come Softly

Jacqueline Woodson

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he's in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. Now he's going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don't exactly fit in there. So it's a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock, and after that they know they fit together, even though she's Jewish and he's black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that's not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way.


Locomotion

Jacqueline Woodson

In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.


Miracle's Boys

Jacqueline Woodson

Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.


The Other Side

Jacqueline Woodson

Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.


Our Gracie Aunt

Jacqueline Woodson

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.


Peace, Locomotion

Jacqueline Woodson

Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.


Pecan Pie Baby

Jacqueline Woodson

When Mama's pregnancy draws attention away from Gia, she worries that the special bond they share will disappear forever once the baby is born.


Red at the Bone

Jacqueline Woodson

Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative ten times its length, Jacqueline Woodson's extraordinary novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of this child.


Show Way

Jacqueline Woodson

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.


Sweet, Sweet Memory

Jacqueline Woodson

A child and her grandmother feel sad when Grandpa dies, but as time passes, funny memories of him make them laugh and feel better.


This is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration

Jacqueline Woodson

A rope passed down through the generations frames an African American family's story as they journey north during the time of the Great Migration.


Visiting Day

Jacqueline Woodson

A young girl and her grandmother visit the girl's father in prison.