As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
328 pp.
| Penguin/Paulsen
| August, 2014
|
TradeISBN 978-0-399-25251-8$16.99
(1)
4-6
A memoir-in-verse so immediate that readers will feel they are experiencing Woodson's childhood along with her. We see young Jackie grow up not just in historical context but also in the context of extended family, community, and religion (she was raised Jehovah's Witness). Most notably, we trace her development as a nascent writer. The poetry here sings: specific, lyrical, and full of imagery.
181 pp.
| Putnam
| January, 2002
|
TradeISBN 0-399-23114-5$$15.99
(2)
4-6
Twelve-year-old Toswiah relates the devastating story of how her middle-class, African-American family was forced to enter the federal witness protection program after her father testified against two fellow cops who killed an innocent boy. Woodson tells a story of people torn apart by grief who eventually find a way to leave their sorrow in the past; her poetic, low-key yet vivid writing style conveys the story's atmosphere of quiet intensity.