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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom take place?

2. What health problem did the boy from up the road suffer from in "The Almost Friends"?

3. How old is Dell described as in "The Beginning"?

4. What book of essays did James Baldwin publish in 1963?

5. Whose wish for a man's head on a platter is described in the poem "Bible Times"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe the names in her family in "Family Names"?

2. How does the author establish the social and political atmosphere into which she was born in "Second Daughter’s Second Day on Earth"?

3. How does the author describe her siblings in the poems "The Reader" and "Hope" from Part 1?

4. How is Odell described in the poem "Uncle Odell"? Who was named for Odell?

5. How does the author describe her feelings about the Bible and Christianity in "Bible Times"?

6. How is "Daywork" described in the poem with the same name? Who took on daywork to support Jackie and her siblings when they were growing up?

7. What event is described in the poem "The Candy Lady"?

8. Into what genres does Brown Girl Dreaming fall? How are these genres defined?

9. How is the history of slavery described in Jackie's maternal grandparents' ancestry in "The Garden"?

10. What conflict is described in the poem "A Girl Named Jack"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Jacqueline Woodson's time of birth. How does the author illustrate the atmosphere of this period in history? What major events occurred in the United States in the year the author was born? How did these events influence her life and culture?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss South Carolina’s history of Slavery and the “trainings” and oppressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. What do “trainings” refer to? How did the trainings originate? How accurate is Gunnar’s explanation of the social unrest in South Carolina and the emerging Civil Rights Movement?

Essay Topic 3

Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir in verse. Define these terms (memoir and verse), and discuss how they apply to the narrative. Is the book fictional or nonfictional? Why do you think the author chose to relate her story through verse? How does this choice affect the reader?

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