I don't believe there are 'struggling' readers, 'advanced' readers, or 'non' readers.
Interpretation
Reading abilities are not fixed and should not be labeled categorically.
Jacqueline Woodson emphasizes that the classification of readers into categories like 'struggling', 'advanced', or 'non' readers is limiting and overly simplistic. Instead, she advocates for recognizing the fluidity of reading skills and promotes an inclusive perspective that encourages individual growth and development in reading, rather than putting people in boxes that could hinder their progress.
In practice
During a literacy workshop discussing the diversity of reading experiences.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.
In the midst of observing the world and coming to consciousness, I was becoming a writer, and what I wanted to put on the page were the stories of people who looked like me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.
The strength of my mother is something I didn't pay attention to for so long. Here she was, this single mom, who was part of the Great Migration, who was part of a Jim Crow south, who said, 'I'm getting my kids out of here. I'm creating opportunities for these young people by any means necessary.'
I would have written 'Brown Girl Dreaming' if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we've come through.
A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a different culture, a different tongue for a child who has already mastered Elvish, respected Puddleglums, or fallen under the spell of dark-skinned Ged?
I can remember only a few of the strange and curious words now dead but living and spoken by the English people a thousand years ago.
When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.
I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
Every time I wrote fiction, I was discouraged, and every time I wrote nonfiction, I was encouraged.
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