YA + Poetry - Brown Girl Dreaming

From NationalBook.org -
Believed to be common use.

I am a teacher, and have taught K-8 (except, for some reason, I've never taught 6th graders!).  Most of my kids are brown, and so when Brown Girl Dreaming came onto the scene, I knew I had to read it and hopefully pass it along to my kids.

This one's written in free verse and telling (singing, really) the author's childhood, from Ohio to South Carolina (minus a father), to Brooklyn (plus a new brother), and her life with and without those she loves.  It's a story of finding your voice and whatever will be your gift to the world, and a snapshot of a world changing for the better.  Not every memory is beautiful but each is beautifully told.

I am not a fan of YA poetry generally, but I am always a fan of writing that makes poetry accessible to the young adult.  It was an interesting story and time period, but I found myself not as interested as I could have been in what was being told.

I'll be looking for her other work, but this one wasn't for me - which is okay, because it wasn't written for me.  I might have a few of my young ladies (teaching 7th this year) read this one, and tell me what they think.  For now this book is not the first on my list when recommending to the YA crowd.