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Jacqueline Woodson

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Remember Us Hardcover – October 10, 2023

by Jacqueline Woodson (Author)

4.6 52 ratings

Editors' pick Best Children's Books of 2023

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National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson brings readers a powerful story that delves deeply into life’s burning questions about time and memory and what we take with us into the future.

It seems like Sage’s whole world is on fire the summer before she starts seventh grade. As house after house burns down, her Bushwick neighborhood gets referred to as “The Matchbox” in the local newspaper. And while Sage prefers to spend her time shooting hoops with the guys, she’s also still trying to figure out her place inside the circle of girls she’s known since childhood. A group that each day, feels further and further away from her. But it’s also the summer of Freddy, a new kid who truly gets Sage. Together, they reckon with the pain of missing the things that get left behind as time moves on, savor what’s good in the present, and buoy each other up in the face of destruction. And when the future comes, it is Sage’s memories of the past that show her the way forward. Remember Us speaks to the power of both letting go . . . and holding on.

Reading age

10 - 13 years
Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Grade level

5 - 6
Lexile measure

680L
Dimensions

5.63 x 0.73 x 8.56 inches
Publisher

Nancy Paulsen Books
Publication date

October 10, 2023
ISBN-10

0399545468
ISBN-13

978-0399545467
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From the Publisher


	Remember Us	Before the Ever After	Harbor Me	If You Come Softly	Brown Girl Dreaming

Customer Reviews	52	721	1,461	603	6,725
Price	$11.59	$10.89	$6.99	$7.99	$6.01
Read more by Jacqueline Woodson:	National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson brings readers a powerful story that delves deeply into life’s burning questions about time and memory and what we take with us into the future.	National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies.	Jacqueline Woodson celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.	A lyrical story of star-crossed love perfect for readers of The Hate U Give, by National Ambassador for Children’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson.	Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner is a powerful memoir that tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.


	The House You Pass On The Way	Peace, Locomotion	Locomotion	Feathers	Hush

Customer Reviews	69	98	413	343	316
Price	$8.99	$8.99	$7.43	$8.69	$7.73
	A lyrical coming-of-age story.	The stunning companion to Locomotion.	Jacqueline Woodson's poignant story of love, loss, and hope is lyrically written and enormously accessible.	Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.	Jacqueline Woodson weaves a fascinating portrait of a thoughtful young girl's coming of age in a world turned upside down.


	After Tupac and D Foster	From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun	Miracle's Boys

Customer Reviews	179	73	318
Price	$6.39	$7.99	$6.99
	A Newbery Honor Book that includes a discussion guide by Jacqueline Woodson.	Jacqueline Woodson explores race and sexuality through the eyes of a compelling narrator.	A novel that was awarded the 2001 Coretta Scott King award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Exceptional. . . . Written in lyrical prose, Remember Us is a poetic time capsule from the 12-year-old Sage, an African American girl living in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn during the 1970s. . . . What struck me about this novel was not only its commemoration of those horrific Bushwick fires . . . but also how Woodson conjures such a captivating, elegiac story from their ashes. . . . Will help tweens process their grief after trauma.” —The New York Times Book Review

* “An African American tween’s world is turned upside down by mysterious fires in her neighborhood and by self-doubt as she comes of age. . . . Drawing on her own experiences growing up in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood during the ’70s and ’80s, Woodson has crafted a beautifully lyrical narrative of change, healing, and growth. Her ability to evoke time and place is masterful; every word feels perfectly chosen. Sage is an irresistible character with a rich interior life, and her relationships with her mother and her friend Freddy are exceptionally well drawn. An exquisitely wrought story of self and community.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* “Another remarkable ode to Brooklyn and memory from the incomparable National Book Award winner. . . . Set during the 1970s, this nostalgia-tinged novel takes place when Bushwick was known as ‘The Matchbox’ because of the fires that plagued its streets. . . . The often wistful text is lyrical, but the nostalgia never overwhelms the narrative. Woodson’s economy of language expertly presents the microcosm of Sage’s community of friends and neighborhood kids and the macrocosm of the external world that threatens to destroy it. Sage’s journey to finding herself while trying to navigate these two worlds will resonate with readers young and old. The power of community and friendship permeates every word in this middle grade novel for all readers. A truly masterly work.”—School Library Journal, starred review

* “This lyrical first-person upper middle-grade novel taps into a wide array of emotional truths and preteen sensibilities. Passages on loss and memory feature palpable sadness, but there is also a tender exploration of the enduring power of friendship and love, the discovery of inner strength and resilience, and the need to balance an appreciation for what ‘once was’ and what may be. Woodson again delivers an appealing protagonist whose voice will resonate with readers in a nuanced coming-of-age story worth remembering.” —Horn Book, starred review

* “Woodson draws on her experiences growing up in Bushwick in the 1970s and ’80s to craft a nostalgic-feeling ode to the unexpected. Short chapters offer swift glimpses into momentous happenings in Sage’s life, while organic dialogue and mesmerizing prose lay bare a narrative that encourages learning to move with the ebbs and flows of life.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

* “The deeply moving novel from National Book Award winner Woodson is both elegant and accessible, and the novel-in-verse approach works wonderfully here, with occasional chapters consisting of only a few dramatic lines. Bushwick and its inhabitants are fully fleshed out with incredible detail and immense tenderness, and Sage immediately feels like a dear friend. A poignant portrayal of a historic neighborhood and an outstanding ode to the grief and gift of growing older. Woodson is one of the most esteemed figures in children's publishing, and her historical fiction especially can't be missed.” —Booklist, starred review

“The emotions and challenges feel ever current. . . . The slice-of-life narrative steers readers through weighty emotions and contemplations on friendship, grounding the connections between notions of identity, family, and home with tactile imagery. The vividness of Sage’s world gives an urgency to the story, calling up the immediacy of youth, while the reflective tone softens some of the more painful memories, assuring to children that these things will pass, and that fires will not burn forever.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

* “Packs an understated but powerful punch. . . . Sage’s deep sense of nostalgia intertwines with a palpable fear of those fires, which act as a metaphor for Sage’s recognition that her body and her world are changing: The present is constantly turning into the ‘once was.’ . . . Remember Ushas the feel of a new classic, ageless in its universal themes while wonderfully rendering a specific time and place. The pure magic of this novel is that Woodson somehow makes readers feel as though they are experiencing these moments of growing up along with Sage. Woodson flawlessly intersperses explosive moments—and games of basketball—among quiet, reflective scenes while responding to Sage’s weighty fears with reassurance about the permanence of loving memories.” —BookPage, starred review

* “National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson uses personal experience to honor her childhood in Remember Us, a poignant work of middle-grade historical fiction about how a little-known event shapes one girl's transition to young woman. . . . Woodson expertly frames Sage's feelings about this awkward life transition through text that is gentle yet lands with force and aching accuracy. . . . Sage's lyrical, accessible first-person narration features a history lesson hidden within the dynamic experience of Woodson's rounded characters. Fans of Woodson should appreciate this novel, which builds and expands upon some of the autobiographical aspects of Brown Girl Dreaming.”—Shelf Awareness, starred review

About the Author

Jacqueline Woodson received a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and she was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her NY Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and the NAACP Image Award. Her dozens of books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, NY Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

After the year of fire
vines rise up
through the rest of our lives
of smoke
of flame
of memory.
As if to say
We’re still here.
As if to say
Remember us.

1

The moon is bright tonight. And full. Hanging low above the house across the street where an orange curtain blows in and out of my neighbors’ window. Out and in. And past the curtain there’s the golden light of their living room lamps. Beyond that, there is the pulsing blue of their television screen. I see this all now. I see a world continuing.

And in the orange and gold and blue I’m reminded again of the year when sirens screamed through my old neighborhood and smoke always seemed to be billowing. Somewhere.

That year, from the moment we stepped out of our houses in the morning till late into the night, we heard the sirens. Down Knickerbocker. Up Madison. Across Cornelia. Both ways on Gates Avenue. Down Ridgewood Place. Rounding the corners of Putnam, Wilson, Evergreen . . .

Evergreen. Sometimes a word comes to you after time has passed. And it catches you off guard. Evergreen. The name of a family of trees. And the name of a block in Brooklyn. Evergreen. Another way of saying forever.

That year, nothing felt evergreen.

Palmetto. A word that has never left me. A word that in my mind is evergreen. Palmetto. The name for both a stunning tree and an oversize cockroach. Palmetto was also the name of a street in my old neighborhood. And that year, Palmetto Street was burning.

2

That was the year when, one by one, the buildings on Palmetto melted into a mass of rock and ash and crumbled plaster until just a few walls were left standing. Walls that we threw our balls against and chased each other around. And at the end of the day, when we were too tired to play anymore, they were the walls we simply sat down by and pressed our backs into, staring out over a block that was already, even as we stared at it with our lips slightly parted and our hands shielding the last of the sun from our eyes, almost gone.

We said Well, nothing lasts for always, right?

We said One day even the whole earth will disappear.

We were just some kids making believe we understood.

But we didn’t. Not yet.

We didn’t understand the fires. Or life. Or the world.

But we knew that neighborhood was our world.

And we knew . . . our world was burning.

3

That was the year of Freddy too.

4

Freddy moved into the corner building on Palmetto Street right where it was sliced through by a small block called Ridgewood Place. The brick houses on Ridgewood Place felt like they came from another time. Each house was just as perfect as the one beside it. The cars parked out in front of the houses were undented and shining. We didn’t understand how the people who lived on Ridgewood Place got such nice houses and fancy cars. But we understood why their brick houses remained standing long after the wooden houses of Palmetto Street had burned to the ground. So we slitted our eyes as we walked past the houses on Ridgewood Place, jealous because the kids who lived inside that brick didn’t have to worry about how quickly flames flew. And we slitted our eyes because we knew they didn’t have to sleep with their robes and shoes at the foot of their beds. We knew if those kids woke up in the middle of the night, it was only to go to the bathroom or climb into their parents’ bed during a thunderstorm.

5

Hey, girl!

The first time I ever talked to Freddy was the day he called to me from his window. I had been dribbling my basketball through my legs as I walked up the block but stopped to see who was yelling. It was summer, and the one tree on Palmetto Street was in front of his building. That’s what I remember now—looking up at Freddy through all that green.

Hey, yourself, I yelled back.

Where’s the park at?

What park?

My dad said there was a park around here somewhere. With hoops.

I shrugged. I don’t know anything about some park, I said.

But you got a ball.

So?

A hot wind came out of nowhere and trembled the leaves. I didn’t want to be yelling in the street up at some kid’s window, and something about that wind made me feel a way. So I gave a little wave and then broke into a jog toward the park.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nancy Paulsen Books (October 10, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399545468
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399545467
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 - 13 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 680L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 5 - 6
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.63 x 0.73 x 8.56 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #78,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #222 in Children's Black & African American Story Books
- #1,195 in Children's Books on Emotions & Feelings (Books)
- #1,781 in Children's Friendship Books

Customer Reviews:
4.6 52 ratings

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Jacqueline Woodson

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Jacqueline Woodson's memoir BROWN GIRL DREAMING won the 2014 National Book Award and was a NY Times Bestseller. Her novel, ANOTHER BROOKLYN, was a National Book Award finalist and an Indie Pick in 2016. Among her many awards, she the recipient of the Kurt Vonnegut Award, four Newbery Honors, two Coretta Scott King Award, and the Langston Hughes Medal. Jacqueline is the author of nearly thirty books for young people and adults including EACH KINDNESS, IF YOU COME SOFTLY, LOCOMOTION and I HADN'T MEANT TO TELL YOU THIS. She served as Young People's Poet Laureate from 2014-2016, was a fellow at The American Library in Paris, occasionally writes for the New York Times, is currently working on more books and like so many writers - lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

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A New York story

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

Woodson bases this fictional work, about Sage, whose firefighter father taught her to play basketball before his death, on her own Bushwick history.
Like so many of us, Sage and her mother had to leave the neighborhood they loved because of the fires of the Seventies.

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024

Verified Purchase

“Remember Us” by Jacqueline Woodson is the kind of Young Adult Fiction that reminds you while adults seek out the genre. If your kid has any identity issues, read it. Seeing a rising seventh grader navigate her stuff while the only neighborhood she has ever known goes up in flames will inspire you and your adolescent children to face anything.

Goodreads classifies this as Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, or Young Adult, so the issues remain relevant regardless of the setting. Sage, our hero, sees herself drifting away from her friends. Even in a world where a child with a deceased father seems to populate every Pixar movie, this material seems fresh and relevant. I see it in my students daily.

I once thought I avoided Middle-Grade Literature because it was juvenile, but now it can remind you of the painful, forgotten moments from childhood. Like the underrated movie “Click” (one of the only Adam Sandler movies I liked), we learn that looking back at your youth can bring up emotions you do not want.

Sage lives in an area called “The Matchbox” due to many house fires. Since Sage’s deceased father was a firefighter, she has a complicated relationship with fires. Like any middle school student, she does not always process her confusion well. Our wisdom makes us want to shake her and get to the bottom of her latent issues.

Sage frequently mentions the “once was,” where she classifies things that no longer exist. It is as mature a way to deal with loss as possible. I encountered very little loss at that early age. Our hero reminds us how little control a middle schooler has over their circumstances and how that leads to frustration and anger. It is perfect for 11-14 year-olds, my eldest included.

One person found this helpful

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Alice Librarian

Brooklyn is burning

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2023

Throwback to the late 1970's Brooklyn - All Sage wants to do is play ball but the neighborhood is on fire this summer and things are changing in ways Sage can't explain. When Freddy arrives on the scene, he seems to be the kind of friend that understands Sage without questioning. While the neighborhood burns around them, Sage and Freddy play ball and watch the little kids amuse themselves in the ruins of burned out buildings until something happens that changes everything. Just where does Sage fit in in this neighborhood, and what will happen if she moves?

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krdito

Thoughtful and gritty

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024

I love all of Jacqueline Woodson's adult books....they are thoughtful, gritty, and so authentic. She never disappoints!

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

thoughtful, evocative novel-in-verse

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023

JW writes these middle grades novels that are so lyrical and so dense with description and i just will always pick them up. this one really transports you not just to Bushwick in the 70s but also just so thoroughly to middle school, wherever and whenever you lived it.

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Live Outside

How our past shapes our lives and being different is fine

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2023

She was like no other. Sage’s eyes were open and she wanted a life that was different. Set in the 1970’s, life may have been simpler, but the issues were still the same: who am I and where am I going?

On Palmetto Street in Brooklyn, Sage knows that the fires are close-by. This is her neighborhood, these are her neighbors, and surrounding her are the businesses and houses that are supposed to protect them, yet she knows that fire will consume the wooden structures. A portion of her world could go up in smoke, just-like-that.

Sage spends a great deal of her time on the court; she would have it no other way. The basketball court is her second home. This court is just like home as she shoots from different spots on the ink and as she plays a pick-up game with the neighborhood kids. Sage realizes and so do the other kids, that Sage is the only girl on the court. The only girl who dreams of making it big, shooting hoops. Sage is first-pick when choosing teams and they know, that she’s one that will take it to the hoop and score for their team. It’s Sage’s female friends who question this choice, a doubt that throws a shadow on Sage.

It’s Freddy who gives her reassurance. He’s the light that Sage needs. A friendship that benefited them both, as they felt tossed around.

I enjoyed the way that Woodson used reflection to set the stage for this book. As Sage remembers the past, she reflects on that summer in the late 1970’s and we can see how it has impacted her life. It’s Woodson use of words, their spacing and the conversations that were spoken on the page that amazes me. Reading this book, you need to stop and appreciate the talent and skill an author has, as they ignite the reader without over-explaining the situation. 4.5 stars

One person found this helpful

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Jessica at Cracking the Cover

Will resonate with young and old

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023

Jacqueline Woodson is a masterful storyteller. Her prose has a richness to it that feels as if she’s in the room talking to you herself. Her style is tight, carefully selecting narrative and dialogue. Never giving too much or too little.

At the center of Remember Us is Sage. A teen who lost her own firefighter father to a blaze. Her relationship with fire is complicated, but her dreams for the future — becoming a pro basketball player — are not. Until they are, too. Sage’s heart is on the page for all to see — her pain, triumphs, her memories.

My one complaint is that Woodson only give pop culture references to the time period in which this is set, only placing it in the 1970s and 80s in her endnotes. I think some other clue might be helpful to readers who are looking for context.

Remember Us is a captivating, fast-moving read. With 77 chapters and less than 200 pages, it’s approachable for all middle-readers.

2 people found this helpful

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Kelly A Van Kirk

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2023

Jacqueline Woodson has a magical way of writing where I can hear her telling me the story. I feel like I’m spending time with a friend whenever I read her work. Remember Us is no different and I will definitely be remembering it for a long time.

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