Literature for Children

Course Number:

ENG 380

In Randall Library, the literature for children and young adults is shelved by these categories

E Easy (Picture) books: Arranged alphabetically by author's last name.
B Biography: Arranged by the last name of the person the book is about.
Fic Juvenile Fiction: Arranged alphabetically by author's last name.
J Non-fiction: Arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification
The 800 class in Dewey is for literature. The major type of literature you will find in our Dewey collection is poetry. American poetry has a call number beginning with 811. English poetry is in 821. Folk tales are in the 300 class (and we have a lot of these books).

Articles & eResources

To find articles on specific subjects relating to children's literature, try searching one of the following databases.

EBSCOHost

Try clicking on any combination of the below databases published by EBSCOhost to search for journal and magazine articles: * Academic Search Premier * MasterFILE Premier * Art Abstracts * Communication & Mass Media Complete * ERIC * Humanities International Index * Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts * Literary Reference Center * MLA International Bibliography * PsycARTICLES * PsycINFO * Teacher Reference Center

MLA International Bibliography

The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Language Association of America, consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from 1926 to the present. The MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in nearly 4,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats. The MLA Thesaurus and Index The thesaurus is a guide to suggest preferred terms, related terms, and synonyms for many descriptors. A plus sign (+) in front of a narrower term means that it also has narrower terms. The index contains an alphabetical list of terms used to index the database. It excludes terms that appear in the limit fields as well as terms in the field-specific indexes. The index allows you to look up, select, and search for variations of a term. It is particularly useful if you are uncertain of the spelling of a term or how the terms appear in the database. Since the index shows terms used in indexing the database, searching directly from this index will always yield results.

ERIC (via EbscoHost)

ERIC, the U.S. Department of Educations Educational Resource Information Center database, contains citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals. This database also contains full text of more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information. EJ ERIC JOURNAL Notes that this document was published in a journal ED ERIC DOCUMENT Notes that this document was never published in a journal, but may be proceedings from a conference, curriculum materials, etc. These documents can be located on microfilm in Randall Library or from 1996-the present in the ERIC Documents Reproduction Center.

JSTOR

Gale Literary Index

Gale's Literary Index is a master index to the major literature series published by Gale Group, Inc. It combines and cross references more than 130,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and more than 160,000 titles into one source.

Gale Literature Resource Center

Full text access to a lot of the Gale products, like Contemporary Literary Criticism.

Indexes over 450 journal in library and information science since 1969. Includes thousands of articles on children's books and publishing.

Library/Information Sciences & Technology Abstracts with Full Text (LISTA)

Library/Information Sciences & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) indexes more than 600 periodicals plus books, research reports, and proceedings in the information industry.

NoveList

The strength of this database is that it helps you find books similar to books you like. In the advanced search mode, you can specify reading level, lexile score of readability, number of pages, publication date, etc.

Project MUSE

A full-text scholarly archive -- good coverage of children's literature topics.

Readers' Guide Retrospective

A great way to find citations to non-scholarly reviews, published between 1890 and 1982.

Using the Library Catalog

Click here to search the Library Catalog

Searching for Authors
If you are looking for resources written or edited by a particular person, you will do an author search in the library catalog. Author searches should be done last name, first name. If resources are available by two different authors who happen to have the same name, look for clues to determine the appropriate author. If you cannot determine the appropriate author by titles of works, birth and death dates are usually given for clarification.

If you are looking for books about a particular person, you will do a subject search in the library catalog. Subject searches for information about people should also be conducted last name, first name. Resources about authors are often broken down into particular categories using Library of Congress subject headings.

Some Common Subject Headings Associated with Resources About Authors

appreciation
bibliography
biography
characters
childhood
chronology

correspondence
criticism and interpretation
encyclopedias
family
marriage
periodicals

philosophy
quotations
relations with editors
religion
style
technique

Searching for Topics
There are two ways to search for literary topics in the library catalog, subject and keyword searches. Subject searches look in the Library of Congress subject headings, which have a consistent way of describing the information in library materials, leading you to very specific sources. Subject searches will also clear up any confusion when searching for a word that is a homonym (for example depression). However, occasionally you may miss some very relevant resources by only doing a subject search.

Some Common Subject Headings Relating to Children's Literature

General Headings
Children's literature
Children's literature, American
[or other country, continent, or ethnic group]

but also specific genres:
Children's plays
Children's stories
Christian literature for children

Children's poetry
but also specific types of poetry:
Children's prose poems
Counting-out rhymes
Limericks, Juvenile
Lullabies
Nursery rhymes
Poetry in mathematics education
Tongue twisters

Physical properties
Children's books
Illustrated children's books
Personalized children's books

Authorship properties
Children's writings

Topics/Themes in Children's Literature, e.g.,
Monsters -- Juvenile literature
Cats -- Juvenile poetry

Keyword searches look for the words you enter in every part of the records in the library catalog. Keyword searches are very flexible, but may result in "false drops" or resources that have all the words you have searched for, but are not actually on the topic you were searching. There are a few techniques to help you create better keyword searches.

AND When AND is placed between keywords, it searches for all the words, but the words need not be near each other and the relationship between the words is not necessarily important
EXAMPLE: Milne and criticism

OR Using OR allows you to search for similar words in one search
EXAMPLE: Monsters and (children's or juvenile)

Truncation Using a wildcard symbol (*) allows you to search for a root word with all of its possible endings
EXAMPLE: Monster* and (children's or juvenile)

Books & Library Materials

Selected reference works:

Children's book review index

Indexes reviews of children's books from 1964 to date.

Children's catalog

The most comprehensive annotated bibliography of children's literature for Pre-K through Grade 6. Also includes a section of recommended web sites. Indexed by author, illustrator, title, subject and other distinctive characteristics such as audiobooks, publishers' series and Caldecott medal winners.

A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books

The 7th edition lists more than 28,000 titles under 1,350 subjects. If you don't find your subject, be sure to consult the subject heading guide. Also includes an illustrator index.

Characters in Children's Literature

"Offers critical introductions to more than 1700 characters from 230 works of fiction." [p. vii.]

Picture Books for Children

Annotations are arranged by these categories: "Me and My Family," "Other People," "The World I Live In," and "The Imaginative World." An introductory essay describes trends in picture book publishing.

Adventuring with books : a booklist for pre-K-grade 6

This and the following 3 titles of bibliographies produced by the National Council of Teachers of English lists new titles that "all have one thing in common: they're good books that students and teachers alike enjoy." [Your Reading, p. vii.]

Kaleidoscope : a multicultural booklist for grades K-8

Your reading : an annotated booklist for middle school and junior high

Books for you : an annotated booklist for senior high

Something about the Author

SATA provides an overview of children's authors personal lives, writings, "sidelights," and biographical/critical sources. The autobiographical companion set provides first person narratives by the authors. Yesterday's Authors includes profiles of authors who died prior to 1961. These volumes are indexed in the Gale Literary Index.

Yesterday's Authors of Books for Children

Black Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults

Twentieth Century Children's Writers

Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction

Plot summaries, themes and meanings and context (comparison to other works) are provided for about 500 major works.

Primaryplots: A Book Talk Guide for Use with Readers Ages 4-8

Provides plot summary, thematic material, book talk material and activities, and related titles.

Children's Literature Review

Pulls together criticism from articles, books, and dissertations from "disparate disciplines."

Children's Literature Review

Contains excerpts of critical information about children's books from books and periodicals. Three levels of commentary are provided: Author (biographical overview followed by comments from the author), General (about the author's entire body of work) and Title (criticism of a specific work.)

Journals

Types of journals/magazines dealing with children’s and adolescent literature:

Academic journals that focus on scholarly study (see below)
Review journals that review individual books for children and young adults (i.e. Hornbook)
Library science/education journals that discuss how to select and/or use books in a library or classroom setting (i.e. Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, Book Links)
Children's magazines, intended for children’s reading pleasure (i.e. Cricket, Stone Soup)

Academic Journals: Please note that many of these journals include non-peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and interviews. Examine them carefully if you are looking for scholarly sources.

Websites