Thank you to Lexington Public Library
Transy Library thanks the Lexington Public Library for partnering with our students to advance their research by providing access to public library collections in print and online.
Thank you to the Children's Department for providing guidance and resources included on the research guide.
Children's Lit--finding books on similar topics
The Transylvania University Library has a small collection of children's literature shelved in the Education Resource Center on the lower level of the library. We typically collect award-winning titles (i.e. Coretta Scot King, Caldecott, Newberry, etc.), and resources requested by Education faculty and students participating in current EDU practicum.
Use the online Transy Library catalog to find children's books in our collection.
Search the Lexington Public Library for more children's book titles.
Use Novelist for Reader's Advisory or to locate "read-alike" titles that can filtered by age, interest, etc.
- NoveList This link opens in a new window
Search by book topic/subject to locate other book titles related to your Controversial Topic Inquiry Project.
Use these resources to locate copies (digital or print) of children's books
- Lexington Public Library Catalog
Search for children's books in the Juvenile collections at all LPL branches. - Libby eBook App
Download the Libby app to your phone or iPad to access eBooks in your local public library's collection. Lex Public Library has many children's books in e-format. - Read Libby eBooks on your computer
If you don't want to read on your phone or tablet, access your Libby account on your laptop.
Literary Criticism
For academic criticism/critique/analysis of children's literature or literature in general, consult the following resources:
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Includes searchable PDF content going back as far as 1887.
- ERIC This link opens in a new window Contains more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Provides articles from 1,900+ scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, and sciences and around 5,000 ebooks. Coverage dates for journals are from the very first issue of each journal (the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries for many) and continues to 2 – 5 years prior to the current year (moving wall).
- LISTA - Lib, Info Science, and Tech Abstracts This link opens in a new window Indexes more than 500 core journals, more than 50 priority journals, and 125 selective journals; plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s.
- Literary Reference Plus This link opens in a new window Provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and time-frames—to give students, professors, and researchers a foundation of literary reference works to meet their research needs.
- MLA This link opens in a new window The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature.
- Teacher Reference Center This link opens in a new window This index of over 260 titles from the most popular teacher and administrator trade journals, periodicals, and books is now also offered free via the EBSCOhost platform. This database provides coverage on key education topics such as Assessment, Continuing Education, Current Pedagogical Research, Curriculum Development, Instructional Media, Language Arts, Literacy Standards, Science & Mathematics, and more for K-12 Teachers & Librarians.
Education and Children's Lit Journals & Reviews
- The Rainbow Book List (ALA The Rainbow Book List is created by the Rainbow Book List Committee of the Rainbow Round Table of the American Library Association. Originally a joint project between the Rainbow Round Table (formerly Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table) and the Social Responsibilities Round Table, the Rainbow Book List presents an annual bibliography of quality books with significant and authentic LGBQTIA+ content, which are recommended for people from birth through eighteen years of age.
Children's Book Awards
- Caldecott MedalFor distinguished American picture books for children.
- Coretta Scott King Book Award"Awarded annually for outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values."
- Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature (DAWCL)Compiled and indexed by children's librarian Lisa Bartle.
- Horn Book AwardSponsored by the Boston Globe
- Kentucky Bluegrass Award Book ListThe KBA committee for each grade band chooses books for each of the five voting Master Lists (Preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12) in a year-long process. Students read books from a Master List before voting for their favorite title on that list." Student voting is what drives the award winner selections.
- Michael L. Printz AwardFor books that exemplify "literary excellence in young adult literature."
- Newbery MedalFor distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
- Pura Belpre Award"The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."
- Schneider Family Book Award"The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."
- Stonewall Book Awards"The first and most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association's Rainbow Round Table (formerly the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table)."
- Transylvania University Judy Gaines Young Book AwardSome of these titles may be for young readers, however, the award is open to different writing genres and reading levels.
Library Session and Tips
- EDU 2024-Children's Lit Project Research-steps and processThese are resources and steps for approaching your research for your critical children's lit project.
Feature Articles
- Taking a Closer Look: LGBTQ Characters in Books for Intermediate-Grade ChildrenTadayuki Suzuki and Barbara Fiehn. Children's & Libraries, Vol 14 (1), 2016.
Statistics in Children's & YA Lit
- Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)-- University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education,"The CCBC has been documenting books for children and teens it receives annually by and about Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) since 1994. Before that, between 1985 and 1993, [CCBC] documented books by and about Black people only."
Children's & YA Literature Librarian
Tammy Haydon
she/her
Contact:
Transylvania University Library
300 N. Broadway
Lexington, KY 40508-1797
300 N. Broadway
Lexington, KY 40508-1797
859-233-8225
Your Librarian
Katrina Salley
Contact:
Transylvania University Library
300 N. Broadway
Lexington, KY 40508-1797
300 N. Broadway
Lexington, KY 40508-1797
859.233.8410