English 3325

Resource Sheet for Children's and Adolescent Literature at the UTPA Library

Selected Reference Books (Browse these areas):

Ref PN 1008.5 area

• Cullinan, Bernice E., and Diane G. Person, eds. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. New York: Continuum, 2001.
• Zipes, Jack, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Ref Z1037 area

• Barr, Catherine. Best Books For Children: Preschool Through Grade 6, 9th Ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2010.
• Gillespie, John T. Best Books for High School Readers: Grades 9-12. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.
• Lima, Carolyn W., and John A. Lima. A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books, 7th Ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Library Catalog and UTPA Stacks:

If you want to browse books, you might want to go to the third floor, PN1008-1009 area, and the fourth floor, Z1037 area. These are all books ABOUT children's and young adult's literature. To look at books FOR children, go to the Juvenile section on the fourth floor.

There is no easy way to search the library catalog for topical books for children. One option is to do an ADVANCED KEYWORD SEARCH, using your topic word/words on one line and the word juvenile on the other. This isn't perfect (you may miss some kids books this way), but it works fairly well.

Online books: There are many places to find full text books online. For books about children's literature, try NetLibrary. You must set up your account while you are on campus if you want to access the books from home. You can also go to Google Books to find full text books in the public domain. For picture books, try the International Children's Digital Library.

Databases:

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database is a database where you can search by topic, author, prize name, ages, reading levels, and more to find book reviews and recommendations for infants through 12th graders.

Literature Resource Center is a useful starting point for biographies and literary criticism.

Literary databases (Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography) are online versions of some of the print resources in the reference area.

MasterFILE Premier is useful for book reviews, including some literary criticism. Much more literary criticism, though, is in the MLA Bibliography. There are many, many databases that have some literary criticism or book reviews.

ipl2 (Internet Public Library 2) and search by subject or collection to find many other resources that discuss children's and young adult's literature.

Academic Search Premier covers all the academic disciplines and includes full text articles. Articles discussing policy issues in education can be found in Education Full Text. Teacher Reference Center (TRC) is an education database that provides information about curriculum development, assessment, literary standards, language arts and more.