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Kim Hochmeister's ENGL 2375:
Children & Adolescent Literature

Hello, Dr. H. and ENGL 2375 students! This guide provides titles of and links to a variety of sources that can help you with your research assignments. Recordings of Elluminate sessions can be found here, under Recordings. Just click on the calendar to find the right month/day.

SPECIAL LINK FOR THOSE WHO ATTENDED THE ELLUMINATE SESSION!!! haha :-P

I. Looking for biographical and background sources for authors/illustrators?

Quick key to source locations:

  • REF sources are in print and available at the SAC Library, 2nd floor reference room. You can also check your local library catalog to see if they own a copy.
  • Online sources are library databases that require a login from offcampus. You can get login info HERE. (What does the login page look like?)
  • Free web sources are just that - freely accessible to anyone on the Internet!

A. Literature Resource Center
Location: Online
Do a quick Author search to find biographies, criticism, and reviews. Use the Advanced search to combine an author name with a title of a work.

B. Biography Resource Center
Location: Online
Do a Name search to find biographies and article reviews. For some authors, this source links to quality free web sites.

C. Magill on Literature
Location: Online
Search for an author's name or the title of a work. This source can provide biographies, reviews, and overviews of works including character analysis, themes & meanings, and context. Famous juvenile and young adult authors such as Judy Blume and Louisa May Alcott are included.

D. Professional Development Collection
Location: Online
This database provides full-text journal and magazine articles for a variety of topics in education. Included is the children's literary review source Horn Book Magazine from 07/01/1990 to present. Here is a link to all the articles in Horn Book - just add an author name in the second search box and click Search to find your author within this source.

E. Children's Literature Review
Location: REF PN1009.A1 C5139 (v. 1-97)
This multi-volume source is the prime place for getting full-text reviews and critiques of children's literature. Use the index to find out which volume contains your author or work. Some volumes (93-126) are now available online via the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

To search these online volumes in GVRL, click on Basic Search. Look for the section "select a publication from below" and click on "View publications" for the category of Literature. Click on any entry for Children's Literature Review, then use the "Search within this publication" box to look for your author's last name in all volumes (93-126). If your author is not in the online volumes, then it probably is included in the printed volumes available in the library. (see: screen shot 1; screen shot 2)

F. Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults
Location: REF PN1009 .A1 B38 (v. 1-8)
This source provides critical essays on and study activities for fictional and biographical works written for young adults. Look in the index to find your author.

NOTE: There are several reference works (dictionaries, handbooks, encyclopedias) for children and adolescent literature in this section: REF PN1008.5 to REF PN1009 .A1

G. Authors and Artists for Young Adults
Location: REF PS490 .A98 (v. 1-34)
Provides biographies and a great bibliography of additional sources (articles, interviews, etc.) at the end of each entry.

H. eBooks from NetLibrary
Location: Online
This is a collection of electronic books. There are not as many e-books available (yet!) as there are printed books in the library, but there are several books in this source on the topic of children's literature. You can try a Keyword search for: "children's literature" (use quotes for phrases) OR do a more specific Subject search for any of these:

  • children's literature
  • children's literature--history and criticism
  • illustrators--united states

You can also click on the "Create a Free Account" link at the top of the NetLibrary home page. After you create a free account, you can login directly to this collection via http://www.netlibrary.com.

I. Educator's Reference Desk
Location: Free web
Major web resource for educators. Contains a specific section on Children's Literature which links to a variety of free Internet sources, inlcuding the extensive Children's Literature Web Guide.

J. Librarians' Index to the Internet
Location: Free web
Collected, organized, and evaluated links for a wide variety of topics, including children's literature. To get a listing of great sites, just search for the keywords: children's literature

K. Index to Children's Book Authors & Illustrators
Location: Free web
The Internet School Library Media Center's index to author and illustrator Internet sites. The ISLMC is a meta-site designed to foster easy access to curriculum related sites for teachers, school librarians, parents and students.

II. Researching a particular work or theme? Create a flexible search strategy!

If you're researching a particular work, such as a book, you basically have two elements to work with: the author's name & the title of the work. Use them separately or together to do your search:

  • blume, judy
  • tiger eyes
  • blume and tiger eyes

If you're researching a particular topic or theme, such as "dealing with death and the grieving process" (from Tiger Eyes by Blume), then you need to list as many synonyms and related key words as possible. Use the list of words to create multiple combinations with the word AND in order to have a successful search:

  • death and grieving and famil*
  • children and parental death
  • child survivor* and death
  • bereavement and children

So...what's the difference between KEYWORD v. SUBJECT searching?

  • Keyword search = to combine key words or for more specific search; finds items that contain your keywords
  • Subject search = for broad search or when you know terminology; finds items that are about that topic

TIPS:

  • Use symbols such as the * at the end of key words to pick up alternate endings.
  • Use keyword and subject searching together: start with a keyword search, find an item that's relevant, then look for subject headings within item descriptions and incorporate those subject words into your search strategy.

III. General sources for your author, work, or theme

Use your search strategy from section II. above! Remember: Online databases require a login from off-campus.You can get login info HERE. (What does the login page look like?)

A. Looking for BOOKS, VIDEOS, other items?

B. Looking for periodical ARTICLES?

NOTE: If the full-text of the article isn't available online use the Journal Locator. Just type in the periodical title to see if SAC Library owns a paper copy or if another database offers full-text.

IV. Evaluate your sources / Cite your sources

Research Process

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