Brown Girl Dreaming: Part IV

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. temptation
    the desire to do something that you know you should avoid
    ...The holes in the wall
    are covered over and left
    unpainted, his bed pulled away from temptation,
    nothing for him to peel away.
  2. chant
    recite with musical intonation
    No more getting wet in the johnny pump
    or standing with two fisted hands out in front of me,
    a dime hidden in one, chanting,
    Dumb school, dumb school, which hand's it in?
  3. cursive
    handwriting in which letters are connected within words
    I want to say, No, my name is Jacqueline
    but I am scared of that cursive q, know
    I may never be able to connect it to c and u
    so I nod even though
    I am lying.
  4. brilliance
    the quality of being magnificent, splendid, or grand
    ...You look so much like her and she is SO brilliant!
    then wait for my brilliance to light up
    the classroom...
  5. stumble
    make an error
    ...Wait for me to stand
    before class, easily reading words even high school
    students stumble over. And they keep waiting.
  6. lyric
    the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number
    The song makes me think of Greenville and Brooklyn
    the two worlds my heart lives in now. I am writing
    the lyrics down, trying to catch each word before it's gone.
  7. memorize
    learn by heart
    ...Words come slow to me
    on the page until
    I memorize them, reading the same books over
    and over, copying
    lyrics to songs from records and TV commercials,
    the words
    settling into my brain, into my memory.
  8. fare
    the sum charged for riding in a public conveyance
    ...We are people
    paying the same fare as other people.
  9. monarch
    butterfly with orange wings and black and white markings
    No one believes me when I tell them
    I am writing a book about butterflies,
    even though they see me with the Childcraft encyclopedia
    heavy on my lap opened to the pages where
    the monarch, painted lady, giant swallowtail and
    queen butterflies live...
  10. absolute
    expressing finality with no implication of possible change
    Did you know God's word is absolute? If we turn to John,
    chapter five, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine...
  11. bodega
    small shop selling groceries, especially in a Hispanic area
    ...But some days, when
    it's raining and Mama won’t let me go outside,
    I see them
    on the block, their fingers laced together,
    heading around the corner
    to the bodega for candy...
  12. baptize
    administer a sacrament signifying spiritual rebirth
    When Maria's brother, Carlos, gets baptized
    he is just a tiny baby in a white lace gown with
    so many twenty-dollar bills folded into fans pinned
    all over it
    that he looks like a green-and-white angel.
  13. stoop
    small porch or set of steps at the front entrance of a house
    We take our food out to her stoop just as the grown-ups
    start dancing merengue, the women lifting their long dresses
    to show off their fast-moving feet,
    the men clapping and yelling,
    Baila! Baila! until the living room floor disappears.
  14. casket
    box in which a corpse is buried or cremated
    Ashes to ashes, we say at the grave site
    with each handful of dirt we drop gently onto
    his lowering casket.
Created on Wed Dec 02 13:17:52 EST 2015 (updated Mon Jul 14 18:41:40 EDT 2025)

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