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Remember I said, One day, we’ll be together again? I know that day is taking a lot longer to come than it should, but I still believe it’s gonna get here, Little Sister. And that’s why I’m trying to write you lots and lots. Because I love writing and I love you and when me and you are together again, I’m gonna want us to remember everything that happened when we were living apart. I’m gonna hold on to all these letters and when we’re living together again, they’re gonna be the first present I give you. A whole box of the Before Time. That’s what this is, Lili, even though I know when me and you get sad, all we think about is the other Before Time—before the fire, before we lived apart from each other. But this is a whole new Before Time. And it’s cool because we’ll be able to remember a whole other set of good things, right? So I’m writing. And I’m remembering. For me. And for you, Lili.
Also by Jacqueline Woodson
After Tupac and D Foster
Behind You
Beneath a Meth Moon
Between Madison and Palmetto
Brown Girl Dreaming
The Dear One
Feathers
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
The House You Pass on the Way
Hush
I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This
If You Come Softly
Last Summer with Maizon
Lena
Locomotion
Maizon at Blue Hill
Miracle’s Boys
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Woodson, Jacqueline.
Summary: Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as “Locomotion,” keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.
[1. Foster home care—Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction.
ISBN: 9781440699160
For Tashawn and Ming
Table of Contents
Remember?
Also by Jacqueline Woodson
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Imagine Peace
Dear Lili,
Little Things by Lonnie C. Motion
Dear Lili,
Imagine Peace Again
Discussion Questions
An Excerpt from Brown Girl Dreaming
An Excerpt from Locomotion
Also by Jacqueline Woodson
Last Summer with Maizon
POEM BOOK
This whole book’s a poem ’cause every time I try to tell the whole story my mind goes Be quiet!
I’m not a really loud kid, I swear. I’m just me and sometimes I maybe make a little bit of noise.
Maybe twelve’s quieter.
But when Miss Edna’s voice comes on, the ideas in my head go out like a candle and all you see left is this little string of smoke that disappears real quick before I even have a chance to find out what it’s trying to say.
So this whole book’s a poem because poetry’s short and
Write fast, Lonnie, Ms. Marcus says.
ROOF
At night sometimes after Miss Edna goes to bed I go up on the roof Sometimes I sit counting the stars Maybe one is my mama and another one is my daddy And maybe that’s why sometimes they flicker a bit I mean the stars flicker
LINE BREAK POEM
Ms. Marcus says line breaks help us figure out what matters to the poet
MEMORY
Once when we was real little I was sitting at the window holding my baby sister, Lili on my lap.
A pigeon came flying over to the ledge and was looking at us.
Mama came running out the kitchen drying her hands on her jeans.
You still are, she said.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Peace, Locomotion"
by .
Copyright © 2010 Jacqueline Woodson.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
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