Brown Girl Dreaming: Part II

by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of autobiographical poems, Jacqueline Woodson vividly brings her childhood and adolescence to life. This memoir in verse won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Newbery Honor Award.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V–Author's Note

Here is a link to our list for Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. generation
    the normal time between successive groups of contemporaries
    My southern grandfather missed slavery
    by one generation. His grandfather
    had been owned.
  2. topaz
    a mineral in crystals of various colors used as a gemstone
    Our grandmother tells us this
    as she sets a small hat with a topaz pin on her head,
    pulls white gloves
    over her soft brown hands.
  3. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    Even Salome intrigues us, her wish for a man's head
    on a platter — who could want this and live
    to tell the story of that wanting?
  4. infinity
    time without end
    Will the words end, I ask
    whenever I remember to.
    Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now,
    and promising me

    infinity.
  5. mortal
    unrelenting and deadly
    The South
    his mortal enemy.
    The South,
    his Kryptonite.
  6. subservient
    compliant and obedient to authority
    Don't ever ma'am anyone!
    The word too painful
    a memory for my mother
    of not-so-long-ago
    southern subservient days...
  7. inherit
    receive by genetic transmission
    But my grandfather just laughs,
    makes us open our mouths
    to show the strong Irby teeth we've inherited
    from his side of the family.
  8. deliberate
    unhurried and with care and dignity
    ...They learn
    how to change the South without violence,
    how to not be moved
    by the evil actions of others, how to walk slowly but
    with deliberate steps.
  9. generous
    more than adequate
    ...So she keeps the marchers'
    glasses filled, adds more corn bread
    and potato salad to their plates,
    stands in the kitchen ready to slice
    lemon pound cake into generous pieces.
  10. transform
    change or alter in appearance or nature
    Supper done and my grandmother has transformed
    the kitchen into a beauty shop...
  11. waft
    be driven or carried along, as by the air
    And while my grandmother sets the hot comb
    on the flame, heats it just enough to pull
    my tight curls straighter, my sister's voice
    wafts over the kitchen,
    past the smell of hair and oil and flame, settles
    like a hand on my shoulder and holds me there.
  12. segregated
    separated or isolated from others or a main group
    Even the five-and-dime, which isn't segregated now
    but where a woman is paid, my grandmother says,
    to follow colored people around in case they try to
    steal something...
  13. bittersweet
    having a taste that is a mixture of bitterness and sweetness
    If I ask, she will hold it to my lips,
    let me taste the bittersweet of it.
  14. fallow
    left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season
    ...Tobacco fields
    lay fallow, crops picked clean.
  15. eternity
    a state of perpetual existence
    ...We are put here to do it
    and we are expected to do it well.
    What is promised to us in return

    is eternity.
Created on Wed Dec 02 13:16:41 EST 2015 (updated Mon Jul 14 18:11:10 EDT 2025)

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