The Dear One and From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Jacqueline Woodson is a very thoughtful writer. Both The Dear One and From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun dealt with sensitive issues such as teen pregnancy, homosexuality and poverty. The stories that Woodson wove and the characters she created are real. So too are the struggles that the main characters fight. Eventually the conflicts are resolved. However, the reader is taken on a soulful ride as the characters journey to acceptance.
In The Dear One, there were many issues in which the characters struggled to accept. Afeni had to work towards accepting the disturbance to her home life that Rebecca’s presence caused. She had to work towards accepting the emptiness left by her grandmother’s death. She had to work towards accepting that her mother had her addiction under control. She had to work at accepting the new life her father created without her. She had to work at accepting new people into her life. I can understand why Afeni was so reluctant to accept change. In her short life she had to deal with her parents’ divorce, her mother’s early drinking and new found sobriety and her grandmother’s death. Any one of those things would be difficult for a child to deal with. I believe that Afeni dealt with them as successfully as a young girl could.
Rebecca too had to deal with acceptance. She had to accept the generosity of others, those who were virtual strangers. She had to accept Marion and Bernadette’s as individual people rather than as stereotypes. She also had to accept her mother for who she was. I marvel at the strength these characters possessed. For young girls they had to deal with emotionally heavy things. Adolescence is a difficult enough time for children in the best of circumstances.
The main character in From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun also had to deal with a highly emotional topic; that of his mother’s newly declared homosexuality. The reader struggles along with Melanin Sun as he navigates the waters of adolescence. We are privileged to have a look into the “notebooks” that Melanin Sun holds so dear. I enjoyed having the chapters alternate between the notebooks and the story line. After a rough summer of anger, confusion and hurt, Melanin finally comes to realize that it shouldn’t matter what others think. It only matters what you believe about yourself.
That is the very powerful message that comes forth from Jacqueline Woodson writings.