Some of Her Favorite Things!

With twenty-four titles to her name, multi-award winning author Jacqueline Woodson is still as passionate as ever about her writing "because it makes me happy. Even when the words are slow in coming and the story seems all lopsided, writing keeps me happy." Her favorite subject in school was English "and anything where we got to do writing." She loved to read, often reading the same books over again. Among her favorite childhood authors were Virginia Hamilton and Judy Blume. Beloved stories include Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant, Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Match Girl and Jon Steptoe's Stevie.

The last book, Stevie, is about the relationship between a young boy and his foster brother....does this ring any bells?

Getting to Know Jacqueline Woodson

An interview that examines the different types of issues Woodson touches on in her writing. Topics include: race relations, incarceration, foster care, etc.

Jacqueline Woodson Picture Books

Similar to After Tupac and D Foster, Jacqueline Woodson's picture books have deep meaning and mature themes.
Show Way details her own lineage from slavery to the civil rights movement to the present. This book literally gave me goose bumps because it was so well written. I could feel the emotions coming through the words and illustrations.
The Other Side depicts an African-American child and a white child on opposite sides of the fence. They defied cultural norms of segregation by building a friendship.

As a social studies teacher, I would supplement my lesson with these books to help my students get a grasp on the lives and culture of those times.

What Drove Jacqueline Woodson To Write

As a child, Woodson had a knack for telling outlandish stories and, by her own account, telling "outright lies." A turning point in her life came in the fifth grade, and it changed her forever:

"That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said 'This is really good.' Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words 'This is really good' came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal — one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange."

Years later, she is still telling stories...but now, EVERYONE is saying, "This is really good."


Post based on Woodson's biography from her website: www.jacquelinewoodson.com

Other books by Woodson

Here is a list of books that were also authored by Woodson. Click Here

Personally, I think Behind You looks pretty interesting and I will probably pick that up the next time I go to the library.

A look at the Author, Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is an American Author who writes books for children and adolescents. Her work usually centers around strong African American themes.

"I wanted to write about communities that were familiar to me and people that were familiar to me. I wanted to write about communities of color. I wanted to write about girls. I wanted to write about friendship and all of these things that I felt like were missing in a lot of books that I read as a child." - J. Woodson

Biography