The cast for a new audiobook edition of Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming has been revealed, People magazine reports.
Woodson’s children’s book, a memoir in verse, was published in 2014 by Nancy Paulsen Books. It tells the story of Woodson’s childhood in Ohio and South Carolina, where she first took an interest in writing. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.”
The book won the National Book Award and the Coretta Scott King Book Award, and is widely considered a classic of modern children’s literature. The new audiobook edition was announced last month. An earlier audiobook, released in 2014, was read by the author.
The narrators for the new audiobook include actors Denée Benton (The Gilded Age), Lena Waithe (The Chi), Dominique Fishback (The Deuce), Nicole Ari Parker (Empire), Tika Sumpter (Gossip Girl), stage actor Montego Glover (Memphis), rapper and singer Big Freedia, and activist and author Marley Dias.
The audiobook will contain a bonus chapter, featuring the voices of librarian Mychal Threets, author Shifa Saltagi Safadi, and readers who answered a call to share their memories of the book.
The new audiobook edition of Brown Girl Dreaming is slated for release on May 12.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
