Jacqueline Woodson Summary

Knowledge: Describe the genre/setting The book starts on February 12, 1963 in Columbus, Ohio. This was the day that the author, Jacqueline Woodson, was born. In this time in History the south in expanding and is battling segregation. At the age of one, her mother and father separated and was taken to Greenville, South Carolina. A couple years pass and her mother decides that they are going to move to New York City. Her family members living in New York informer her that there are a lot of opportunities in the big city. In New York in when she discovers that her calling is to become a writer.

Comprehension: Summary Jacqueline Woodson was born after slavery had ended but segregation was still on going. She comes from a long family tree of

Throughout the book the author, Jacqueline Woodson, provides information about each of her family members such as when and how they died. The book begins at her birth then it gives background information on her father’s side of the family. She explains that she can trace her family history all the way back to, Thomas Woodson of Chililichothe, the first son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. On page eight it is said that the reason for so many individuals in the Woodson family became doctors, lawyers, and teachers etc. is because of the relation with Thomas Jefferson. Jaqueline’s mother, Mary Ann Irby, and father, Jack Austin Woodson, together they conceived her older brother, Hope Woodson, named after his grandfather on his father’s side and older sister, Odella Woodson, named after her mother’s brother that recently died. Jaqueline was in contact with her father’s side of the family up until she was a year old. At this time her mother left her father and moved back to North Carolina to live with Jacqueline’s grandmother and grandfather. Majority of her life was spent being surrounded by her mother’s side of the family that was still alive. Her mother’s brother, Odell Irby, died three years before Jacqueline was born. Her grandparents, Gunnar Irby and Georgiana Scott Irby, raised her most of her childhood when her mother would go to protest or take trips to New York City.

The book begins when she is a new born and is unaware of what the world has to offer. At the age of one her mother takes her and her siblings to South Carolina to live with their grandparents. She remains in South Carolina for several years. During this time the only children she encountered where the three sets of neighbors that lived on the same street as her. The first set neighbors included the boy with the hole in his heart and her grandmother used this individual to teach her that you discuss sensitive topics such as illnesses that others have with them. The second set of neighbors included Cora and her sisters, and Jacqueline’s grandmother wanted her and her siblings to stay away from them, because their mother left the family and ran off with the pastor at their church. There was one occasion when they were allowed to come other and play, but was ruined. Cora and her sisters told Jacqueline that because she stepped on a mushroom the Devil would come and get her. This episode showed her that if she believed in God then the Devil could not harm her. This information devastated her and her grandmother informed that they were telling lies so they were no longer allowed to speak to them. The last of neighbors included three boys that only came out of their house in the evening when it was time for Jaqueline and her siblings to start going inside. They had to wait for their mother to get home to