True/False
Jacqueline struggles with speaking.
False
How can I explain to anyone that stories are like air to me, I breathe them in and let them out over and over again.
Simile
What is Jacqueline’s initial reaction to New York City?
It isn't what she expected.
Who is Robert in relation to Jacqueline?
Her uncle.
P.S. 106 Haiku
Jacqueline Woodson.
I’m Finally in fourth grade.
It’s raining outside.
What is this poem trying to tell the reader?
Jacqueline is in fourth grade.
The name of the song that Hope sings is "Tingalayo."
T
My donkey eats with a knife and fork.
Personification
How does Jacqueline feel about her first grade classroom?
She loves her new school and admires all of the details about it.
Who is Jacqueline’s best friend?
Maria
What is the meaning of the title of the poem, "Home Then Home Again?"
The title refers to Greenville and New York as Jacqueline’s homes.
Roman is hospitalized because he has a genetic disorder.
False
The story wakes up and walks all over the room. Sits in a chair, crosses one leg over the other, says, let me introduce myself. Then just starts going on and on.
Personification
In the poem, "Because We're Witnesses," how does being a Jehovah's Witness affect Jacqueline?
She cannot celebrate holidays or vote/fight.
What was the first book that Jacqueline wrote about?
Butterflies
Saturday Morning
Some days in this new place
there is only a box of pancake mix
an egg, and faucet water, the hiss
of those together
against a black cast-iron pan,
the pancakes sticking to it
syrupless but edible and us
complaining about it wishing like anything
we were back in Greenville,
where there was always something good
to eat. We remember
the collards growing
down south, the melons, fresh picked
and dripping with a sweetness New York
can never know.
We eat without complaining
or whining or asking our mother when there will be
syrup, butter, milk . . .
We remember Greenville
without her, count our blessings in silence
and chew.
What does the italicized part of this poem mean?
Even though the food isn’t as good as it was in Greenville, they are grateful to be with their mother.
Jacqueline has to leave her classroom during the pledge of allegiance due to her religion.
True
Her patent-leather purse perfectly clasped.
Alliteration
When the children return to Greenville for the first time since moving to New York, what are some things that make Jacqueline feel at home?
The smells, sounds, colors, and Grandma’s scolding.
What is one major difference between Jacqueline and her sister?
Odella does well in school, and Jacqueline struggles.
Composition Notebook
And somehow, one day, it’s just there
speckled black-and-white, the paper
inside smelling like something I could fall right into,
live there—inside those clean white pages.
I don’t know how my first composition notebook
ended up in my hands, long before I could really write
someone must have known that this
was all I needed.
Hard not to smile as I held it, felt the breeze
as I fanned the pages.
My sister thought my standing there
smiling was crazy
didn’t understand how the smell and feel and sight
of bright white paper
could bring me so much joy.
And why does she need a notebook? She can’t even write!
For days and days, I could only sniff the pages,
hold the notebook close
listen to the sound the papers made.
Nothing in the world is like this—
a bright white page with
pale blue lines. The smell of a newly sharpened pencil
the soft hush of it
moving finally
one day
into letters.
“And even though she’s smarter than anything,
this is something
my sister can’t even begin
to understand.”
What is the author trying to say in these lines of the poem?
Being smart doesn't mean you understand everything, like how other people feel.
The laws in the South are changing but Jacqueline's grandmother still does not feel safe.
True
Watch our grandmother, still waving, grow small behind us and our grandfather, in the window, fade from sight.
Oxymoron
Why must the children go to Mrs. Hughe's house in part 3 of the novel when visiting Grandma and Grandpa?
Grandpa Gunnar is too sick to watch the kids and Grandma must work two jobs to support the family.
What is different in South Carolina when the kids go down to visit Grandma and Grandpa in part 4?
Daddy Gunnar’s health is declining.
On Paper
The first time I write my full name
Jacqueline Amanda Woodson
without anybody’s help
on a clean white page in my composition notebook,
I know
if I wanted to
I could write anything.
Letters becoming words, words gathering meaning, becoming
thoughts outside my head
becoming sentences
written by
Jacqueline Amanda Woodson
What is the main idea of this poem?
These are Jacqueline's first steps towards being a writer.