Jacqueline Woodson

• Born on February 12, 1963 in Columbus, Ohio
•  Loved to write when she was younger and she knew that she wanted to be a writer because it made her happy
• Lives in Brooklyn with her daughter, son, and lifelong partner
• Writes chapter books and picture books

        Meet the Author Video:

• Quotes:
• “I think it's important that everyday we think about the work we need to do to make this world a better place. I mean, we should wake up thinking about it and go to bed thinking about tomorrow's tasks. There's an awful lot of change needing to be made around here.”
•  “People who don't know what it's like to be an African American don't understand that it's OK, ... I never want to be other than an African American.”

• Some Awards Received: (Many, many more!)
• Lifetime Achievement Awards:
• Margaret A Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement
• St. Katharine Award
• 2012 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Reader’s Literature

• Newberry Honor Metal:
•  After Tupac & D Foster
• Feathers
• Show Way

• Caldecott Award:
• Coming On Home Soon

• 2002 Booklist Editor’s Choice:
• Hush

• ALA Best Book for Young Adults:
•  Behind You
• If You Come Softly
•  Miracle’s Boys

•  Coretta Scott King Honor:
• From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
•  I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This
• Locomotion
• Miracle’s Boys

Notable Picture Books:

Pecan Pie Baby	Coming On Home Soon	Our Gracie Aunt
Visiting Day	The Other Side	Each Kindness

Notable Chapter Books: 

I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This	From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun	Miracle's Boys
If You Come Softly	Behind You	Hush

Book Reflections:

Pecan Pie Baby: 
This book is about a girl named Gia and her struggles with accepting that she is going to have a new baby sister or brother. Everyone around her is excited about the baby and it makes Gia worried that her life will be totally different once the baby is born. Once Gia expresses her concerns to her mother, her mother tells her that she will just have to be the one to tell the new baby about what life was like when it was just Gia and her mother. 

I enjoyed reading this book. It would be a good book to use in the classroom if students were expecting new babies in their families. The book tells the story of a young girl and her single- mother, which would be good for exposing children to different types of families. 

Our Gracie Aunt: 
This books tells the story of Johnson and Beebee's life living alone when their mother neglects them. A social worker takes them from their home and sends them to live with their Aunt Gracie who they have never met. At first the kids are nervous about living with their aunt, but they realize how lucky they are to have her to take care of them. 

This book would be great to use in the classroom to introduce the idea of foster care and to also show that different people can have different meanings of family. 


Bibliography:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfGBtIG6CgM
http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/books-by/jacqueline-woodson