Jacqueline Woodson writes books for children and adolescents. She is best known for 'Miracle's Boys' which won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2001 and her Newbery Honor titles 'After Tupac & D Foster', 'Feathers' and 'Show Way'. Her work is filled with strong African American themes, generally aimed at a young adult audience. She is an openly lesbian woman with a lifelong partner and two children, a daughter named Toshi Georgianna and a son named Jackson-Leroi

Some of the topic covered in Woodson's books raise flags for many censors. Homosexuality, child abuse, harsh language and other content have led to issues with censorship. In an interview on NPR
Woodson said that she uses very few curse words in her books and that the issues adults have with her subject matter say more about what they are uncomfortable with than it does what their students should be thinking about. She suggests that people look at the various outside influences teens have access today, then compare that to the subject matter in her books.


The House You Pass on the Way is a novel which touches on gay identity through the main characters of Staggerlee.
“Staggerlee knows who she is for the most part, but her friend Trout is struggling, conforming, trying to fit in somewhere. I wish I had had this book when I was a kid and trying to fit in while being a tomboy and so unfeminine.”

In The Dear One Woodson introduces a strongly committed lesbian relationship between Marion and Bernadette. She then contrasts it to the broken straight family which results in a teenager from Harlem named Rebecca moving in with them and their twelve-year-old daughter, Feni.

"Death happens," Woodson told Samiya A. Bashir in Black Issues Book Review. "Sexual abuse happens. Parents leave. These things happen every day and people think that if they don't talk about it, then it will just go away. But that's what makes it spread like the plague it is. People say that they're censoring in the guise of protecting children, but if they'd open their eyes they'd see that kids are exposed to this stuff every day, and we need a venue by which to talk to them about it and start a dialogue. My writing comes from this place, of wanting to change the world. I feel like young people are the most open."


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