Jacqueline Woodson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jacqueline Woodson
Woodson at the 2018 U.S. National Book Festival
Born	Jacqueline Amanda Woodson (1963-02-12) February 12, 1963 (age 62) Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Alma mater	Adelphi University The New School
Period	1990–present
Genre	Young adult fiction
Subject	African-American literature
Notable works	Miracle's Boys (2000) Show Way (2006) Feathers (2007) After Tupac and D Foster (2008) Brown Girl Dreaming (2014)
Notable awards	National Book Award 2014 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature 2018 MacArthur Fellowship 2020
Partner	Juliet Widoff
Children	2

Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963) is an American writer. She creates amazing books for children and teenagers. She is famous for books like Miracle's Boys. She also won a Newbery Honor for Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way.

Jacqueline Woodson's Early Life

Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio. She lived in Nelsonville, Ohio, before her family moved south. During her early years, she lived in Greenville, South Carolina. When she was about seven, she moved to Brooklyn, New York.

Woodson spent her childhood in both South Carolina and Brooklyn. She remembers how different these places were. South Carolina was calm and focused on community. Brooklyn was lively, fast-paced, and full of different cultures. Her neighborhood had people from Germany, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and many other places.

Even as a child, Woodson loved telling stories. She always knew she wanted to be a writer.

Jacqueline Woodson's Writing Journey

After college, Woodson started working for a company that created children's books. She helped write reading tests for schools. There, a children's book agent named Liza Pulitzer-Voges noticed her talent. This connection helped Woodson get her first book manuscript seen.

Later, she joined a writing class at The New School. An editor from Delacorte heard her read from her book Last Summer with Maizon. The editor loved it and decided to publish it.

Woodson's Writing Style

Woodson is known for creating detailed settings in her books. She often writes about characters who face challenges. These can be social, economic, or even racial barriers. Her characters then find ways to overcome these difficulties. This creates powerful and emotional stories.

She is also known for being hopeful in her writing. Woodson believes that books should offer hope. She doesn't like stories that feel sad and hopeless. For example, she enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Even though the family was very poor, they still found moments of hope and beauty. Woodson uses this idea in her own books. She says that if you care about your characters, you can always find hope in their stories.

Woodson writes specifically for young readers. She wants to capture what it feels like to be a child or a teenager. She explains that for young people, everything feels very important and urgent. She tries to put that feeling into her books.

Woodson as a Teacher

Jacqueline Woodson has inspired many other writers. She teaches teenagers at the National Book Foundation's summer writing camp. There, she helps them create their own stories. She also helps edit a book of their combined work each year. In 2017, she was a visiting writer at the American Library in Paris.

Important Themes in Woodson's Books

Woodson with writer Jason Reynolds and Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in January 2020

Woodson believes her books explore questions that everyone can relate to. She has written about topics that were not often discussed when her books first came out. These include different kinds of families and relationships. She often shows these topics through characters that readers can care about. Woodson wants to explore many different viewpoints in her writing. She does not try to force her own ideas on readers.

Several themes appear often in Woodson's novels. She writes about gender, social class, and race. She also explores family and history. She is known for using these common themes in new and interesting ways. Many of her characters might feel "invisible" to society. But Woodson usually writes about their journey to find themselves.

African-American Society and History

In her 2003 novel, Coming on Home Soon, she explores race and gender. This story takes place during World War II.

The Other Side is a poetic book about race. It tells the story of two young girls, one Black and one White. They sit on opposite sides of a fence that separates their worlds.

Red at the Bone (2019) is a novel that tells the stories of three generations of a Black family. It includes events like the Tulsa Race Massacre and the September 11 attacks.

Economic Status

The Dear One is a book that looks at the differences between rich and poor. It shows these differences within the Black community.

Jacqueline Woodson's Personal Life

Woodson lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She lives with her partner, Juliet Widoff, who is a doctor. They have two children, a daughter named Toshi Georgianna and a son named Jackson-Leroi.

Jacqueline Woodson's Inspiring Quotes

• "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 the books that I read as a child."
• "Black women have been everywhere--building the railroads, cleaning the kitchens, starting revolutions, writing poetry, leading voter registration drives and leading slaves to freedom. We've been there and done that. I want the people who have come before me to be part of the stories that I'm telling, because if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be telling stories."
• "Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together."
• "If you have no road map, you have to create your own."
• "My writing is inspired by where I come from, where I am today, and where I hope to go some day."
• "The hardest part is telling one's story. Once the story is on the page, the rest will come."
• "Childhood, young adulthood is fluid. And it's very easy to get labeled very young and have to carry something through your childhood and into your adulthood that is not necessarily who you are."

Fun Facts About Jacqueline Woodson

• When she was young, Woodson's favorite books were Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" and Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
• She has mentioned many writers who inspired her. These include James Baldwin, Virginia Hamilton, Nikki Giovanni, and Louise Meriwether. Other early influences were Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sula. Her high school English teacher, Mr. Miller, also inspired her.
• From 2015 to 2017, she was the Young People's Poet Laureate. Then, for 2018–19, the Library of Congress named her the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.
• In 2020, she received a MacArthur Fellow award. This is a very special grant given to talented individuals.
• She published her autobiography, Brown Girl Dreaming, in 2014.
• Some of her books discuss challenging or important topics. This has sometimes led to discussions about what books should be in schools or libraries.

Awards and Honors

Jacqueline Woodson's Complete Works

Jacqueline Woodson has written many different kinds of books. Here are some of her works:

Novels for Adults

Middle Grade Titles

These books are often for readers aged 8-12.

Young Adult Titles

These books are usually for teenagers.

Illustrated Works (Picture Books)

These books often have beautiful pictures to go with the story.

Book Adaptations

Film and TV

• Filmmaker Spike Lee helped turn Miracle's Boys into a miniseries. It aired in 2005.

Audiobooks

Many of Jacqueline Woodson's books are also available as audio recordings. This means you can listen to the stories being read aloud.

See also

• List of winners of the National Book Award