Children's Literature Association Quarterly

Abstract:

Although Jacqueline Woodson’s award-winning collection of poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, is most likely to be categorized as memoir and shelved with African American literature, the author’s continual evocation of ghosts suggests a strong connection to the Gothic tradition. This article explores the Gothic traces of Woodson’s work, arguing that this classification is crucial for diversifying young adult and children’s literature and expanding overly confining genre boundaries in the publishing world.