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What place does children's literature currently have in the English canon?
There is very little children's literature we consider part of the canon.
Can you think of other genres or types of literature that are treated similarly in terms of canonization and awards?
Graphic novels, women's fiction, fantasy, ...
Should we let the quality of children's literature be judged by children or adults?
Nowadays the award laureates are chosen by a jury with broad expertise in children's and young adult literature. These members include authors, critics, scholars, illustrators and librarians.
How do you know Brown Girl Dreaming is a children's book?
The cover is appealing to children and young adults, easy to understand language and sentence structure, the topic is understandable for a younger audience, it includes poems, simple layout, ...
Why do we consider Woodson's book children's literature but not Walker Brothers Cowboy?
The latter doesn't have a clear storyline, difficult language, complex sentence structure, ...
What are the most important themes in Brown Girl Dreaming?
Segregation
Racism
Discrimination
Self-discovery
Family dynamics
Religion
Brown Girl Dreaming has been described as both an autobiography and averse novel, how is that reflected in the material presentation of the book?
It's considered an autobiography because the content of the story is about the life of the author, it's written in first person perspective, it included pictures and a family tree, ...
It's considered a verse novel because the sentences get cut off before the end of the page, there are titles on every page, it's written in verse form, it includes poetry but also narration, ...
How do form and content work together?
There are poems in the novel which the author allegedly wrote during childhood, one of the main themes of the story is how the author finds her identity and becomes a writer despite her struggles. Stylistically we see that certain parts of the sentence are separated from the rest, which perfectly ties in with one of the main themes of the novel being segregation.
What role does literature/writing play in the story?
The main theme of the novel is the author discovering herself and becoming an author, despite her struggles with dyslexia and being a female POC. A lot of famous books are mentioned in the novel.
Is it only relevant for children of African American ethnicity?
No, even though African American children can relate to the protagonist more, children of other ethnicities can still learn from this novel and some experiences she talks about are quite universal.
