What does Lonnie remember when he thinks about them? Lonnie’s mom and dad were killed in a fire. When Lonnie thinks about them, he feels sad, but he also has good memories. He thinks about their laughter and love.

Lonnie becomes a foster son to a woman he identifies as Miss Edna. Miss Edna has two grown sons, one serving in the military and one who moves back home after Lonnie has settled into this new life.

Lonnie Collins Motion

Theme. The author of Peace, Locomotion is Jacqueline Woodson. The theme in this book is don’t let someone fool you just because you are not perfect and are a different gender.

Lonnie and his sister Lili are in foster care after the death of their parents. They live with separate families and this book is Lonnie’s letters to Lili that he writes to stay connected to her and as he says “to be the rememberer” while they are living separately.

He was nicknamed Locomotion by his mother after her favorite song, “The Loco-Motion.” Lili: Locomotion’s little sister. Locomotion and Lili now live with different foster families, so Locomotion doesn’t get to see her as often as he’d like. Miss Edna: Locomotion’s new foster mother.

two dogs

Racism, Activism, and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Brown Girl Dreaming focuses on the experience of growing up as an African-American child during the 1960s and early 1970s, a period of intense energy and organization surrounding questions of race and racial justice.

Why was STEVIE such a gift for Jacqueline? It was about people who looked like her. She thought he was a handsome young man. She could read it easily.

ages 10 and up

Children’s literature

Roman doesn’t die in Brown Girl Dreaming. He does, however, get extremely ill. Roman is the youngest child of the family; his birth meant that Jacqueline was no longer the baby. However, when he eats lead paint off the walls and has to be hospitalized, Jacqueline misses him.

Nicholtown is a predominantly African-American community in Greenville, South Carolina. Jacqueline Woodson’s award-winning adolescent novel, Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) was based on recollections of her childhood in Nicholtown.

Two play together frequently, and Maria teaches Jacqueline some Spanish. Maria and Jacqueline are so close that Maria considers Jacqueline to be family. Uncle Odell is Mama’s brother and Odella’s namesake. Odell died after being hit by a car a few months before Odella’s birth.

What does the author always seem to be doing in “Brown Girl Dreaming”? It is a true story about the author’s life. It is about a famous person.

Mama moves to New York City from Greenville because of the multitude of jobs to be found there, and Jack, who is from Ohio, says that “no colored buckeye in his right mind would ever want to go [to the south]” because racism is so pervasive there.

In the poem “brooklyn rain” from Brown Girl Dreaming, how does Woodson feel about staying indoors? Staying indoors bores her. She is scared of the outdoors. Staying indoors makes her feel safe.

Jackie comes to love Greenville. While racism and segregation exist there, the place is still home to her and her grandparents. They believe in peaceful marches for civil rights.

When Jacqueline asks Mama what she believes in, Mama tells her she believes in “right now… the resurrection… Brooklyn” and her four children.