Compelling and completely relatable, Jacqueline Woodson chronicles her formative years in this well-crafted memoir. When her parents separate following an ugly dispute about geography (her father prefers to live in the Northern state of Ohio; her mother wants to move back home to South Carolina), Jackie, her mom and two siblings migrate to Greenville to live with her mother's parents. Though racism is ever-present, Jackie falls deeper in love with her grandparents and finds contentment in the Southern region with its pleasantries and faults. Her mother, Mary Ann, yearns to return north. She leaves alone to prepare a life for herself and her children. When her mother returns for them, Jackie learns that New York will be their home and of the existence of an additional sibling, a baby brother. As time passes, Jackie's grandfather dies of cancer, her grandmother concedes to leave the only home she has ever known to move in with Mary Ann and the kids, and Jackie's talent and writing ability are confirmed causing her to "dream" of a day when her ambitions will be realized. That day has come.
This tale could have easily been my own. I am a native of the deeply communal New Orleans, LA and a member of a family that boasts pride in being "Seriously Southern". Though greater opportunities exist in Houston, we are tethered to the Pelican state. My husband and I travel "home" often to insure that our children keep their connection to our cultural heritage and our families, especially their grandparents.
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