Jacqueline Woodson is the rare author who writes books for people of all ages — not in the sense of one book that everyone can enjoy, like Winnie the Pooh, but separate books for various age levels. I have long loved her novels for adults, and my 7yo really enjoys her picture books. And lately I’ve taken an interest in the middle-grade/YA books too, because I guess I’m a Woodson completist now. I consistently marvel at her ability to address really difficult topics through stories that are honest, nuanced, sensitive, and beautiful.* She has so much respect for the intelligence and emotional depths of young people, while also recognizing that they are not just miniature adults.
Before the Ever After is a novel in verse about a kid whose father, a star football player, has CTE. And this is why I read Woodson’s YA books, because it was so revelatory for me to think about CTE from the perspective of a child who is not only watching his father suffer, but is also gradually awakening to an understanding of the systems shaping his world, and their racial and socio-economic aspects. Often when we are presented with a child’s view of adult topics, the point is a slight estrangement; to use their innocence to make us see the thing stripped of all the cultural baggage attached to it. The child’s mind is largely a conduit that allows us to question our own views. That’s not really what Woodson is doing though. There’s a little of that, sure, but it seems to me that she’s after something more complex, namely, to get at what the child understands: how they map things conceptually, what their experience is like. So this is a novel about CTE, but it’s also a lovely story about boyhood, and friendship, and finding your way.
Truly, one of the most brilliant and important writers working today.
*In the picture books, see, for example, The Other Side, or Show Way. Or if you want to start with something lighter, we loved The World Belonged to Us.
Kasia Reads 