Another Brooklyn

Beautifully written, the tone and descriptions and ways of saying things were all so well done. This was short but the characters came alive, and were all so unique and interesting. I truly loved this novella.

Amazingly written!

Wow, how have I not read Jacqueline Woodson before? She is an incredible talented writer and this short work of fiction packs a punch couched in her poetic language.

This is more than a coming of age novel, although every line about the three girls she wishes to be like and who eventually become close friends resonates. The extreme pleasures and tortures of leaving childhood and entering womanhood are so beautifully drawn.

Beyond that is also the story of a young girl, who is uprooted from her Tennessee home, her family fractured, and how she learns to accept her new reality. A reality which she truly wishes to accept and not accept with the fear that accepting things as they are will wash away her memories.

This book was beautiful and lyrical and lovely. It also reminded me just how sheltered I was growing up, and how privileged I was and am.

... Every sentence I try to write just doesn't measure up to how I really felt about this book, so I will think on it and try again later.

This is beautifully written, and very spare–you get to know a lot about these characters without having too much spelled out for you. I, as a reader, would have loved MORE, but I grudgingly acknowledge that's not the kind of book this is.It would be an interesting pairing with Burn Baby Burn since they're both in NYC in the 70s, partly both in the summer of 77, but such different tones.It was also interesting for me because I read and loved Woodson's memoir [b:Brown Girl Dreaming 20821284 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424308405s/20821284.jpg 39959105], and I know this is fiction but I did keep wanting to make connections to the memoir. (Also...I loved the memoir so much!)

This novel just wasn't for me as a reader who needs a plot to follow, or at least a character narrative that progresses from a beginning to end. While there were passages that were beautifully written, I felt like the time I spent reading wasn't satisfying. It might have worked better as a collection of poems for a reader to dip into, rather than expecting a story and not finding it.

4.5 stars. Woodson has just an incredible lyricism, even with her prose. I didn't love this as much as Brown Girl Dreaming, but it is excellent.

This read like a poem, like the memories were flitting around in the air and Woodson was simply plucking them out and putting them to page.

This was fabulous. I listened to it while I ironed my banner and knitted my hat for the Womens' March this Saturday. It's a short, powerful tale of a girlhood. The narrator, Robin Miles, has this entrancing voice and the Woodson's writing is so magical I would find myself stopping and sitting and just listening and feeling for quite some time. It is short (just under 3 hours) and I hated to leave August behind.

Beautifully written

Recommend audiobook so you can really hear the beauty in Woodson's writing. Such elegance and beauty on such emotional and occasionally traumatic topics. Teen girlhood so authentically rendered.

This isn't just a novel, it's a love letter to girlhood. Specifically, it's a gorgeously crafted, prose style, love letter to growing up as a black girl in 1970's Brooklyn. Anyone who has read Jacqueline Woodson's writing, knows that she has a knack for transporting her readers straight to wherever her story is set. In this case, that's even truer than before. Through August's memories, through the snippets that she deigns to share with us, the reader is transported straight back to her childhood in a place that wasn't quite home. A place where the mean streets chewed people up, and spit them back out. Unfortunately, not always whole. You can feel this place, this time, pulsing on the page. Another Brooklyn is stunning, and even that compliment is an understatement.

August allows the reader to follow her back to a time and place where friendship was the only thing keeping her whole. Woodson manages to bring these four girls, and their separate home situations, to life in vivid color. I didn't think it was possible to accomplish that in such a short amount of pages. I was wrong. Each one of these girls is hiding their true self from the others, in the hope that it will allow them to escape into one another for a while. Hoping it will allow them to fade into a group that provides its own kind of family. As those true selves came to light, and I was treated to a glimpse at why these girls needed one another so deeply, my heart broke into pieces. The whole world, at least as they knew it, was against them. Their bravery, as thin a shield as it may have been, was commendable.

If I had one small complaint, it would be that this book simply isn't long enough. I know that seems trivial, since Woodson is clearly capable of weaving a perfect story in this small amount of pages. However I missed these girls after the story was over. I wanted to hear more about their pasts. To live their stories. To be able to fully mourn the ones who didn't make it. I'd have read 400 pages of this, and not even batted an eyelash. That's the kind of writer that Jacqueline Woodson is, and why you should pay attention. So yes, in case it wasn't obvious, you should read this. It absolutely deserves your time.