Research & Resources

The scholarship of children's literature is a growing field of study. The explosion of children and young adult literature in the last quarter of the 20th century may be attributed to any number of factors from baby boomer affluence and the environmental movement to feminist and multicultural responses to the children's literature canon. In conjunction with the increase in children and young adult publications is unprecedented access to the writing process of authors. Interviews, conferences, book publishing tours and personal memoirs abound. These reflections provide writers, educators, parents and students with insights into the creative process.

Subject Guides by Topic

• Folktales:
http://www.library.wwu.edu/ref/clic/folktales.htm
• Communication Sciences & Disorders:
  http://www.library.wwu.edu/lmt/page.phtml?page_id=909
• General:
  Literature for Children & Young Adults: Resources at Western Libraries

Locating Books

• The best place to start when you are looking for a particular item is in the Library Catalog
• Government Publications for Children are available for check-out.For example, coloring books about National parks or health & safety information. Look for these new publications on the New Children's Literature shelves
• Children's Reference materials are available on the first set of shelves when you enter the area.

• Journals that review children's literature: The Horn Book, Book Links, Reading Teacher, Multicultural Review, Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal are all available in print or full-text online via the Western Libraries Web.
  Journal Title Search
• Published online, The Voice of Youth Advocates, VOYA: http://www.voya.com/ and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: http://bccb.lis.uiuc.edu/are excellent resources.
• Children's Literature Review, a multi-volume series that contains history and criticism of authors and illustrators, is available in the main reference collection on Haggard 2. Call #  Z1037.A1 C498
• To locate a review on a particular title in a particular journal, use the Ebsco Database. Select Journal Name, from the drop-down menu, and type in the journal title. Then, in a separate search box, type in the title of the book or the author's name.

Topics, Ages, Themes, Etc.

• Guide books and bibliographies for particular age groups and subjects are available on the Reference shelves (first set of shelves when you enter from the large Rotunda.) Resources like A to Zoo, Graphic Novels for Children and Tweens, Multicultural and Ethnic Children's Literature, will help you locate specific books.

Education Resources

• Cecilia Poon, Librarian for Woodring College of Education: http://www.library.wwu.edu/subjects/ed/index.html
• Center for Education, Equity and Diveristy: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/
• The Pacific Northwest Children's Literature Clearinghouse: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/PNWCLC/

Scholarly Associations

• Children's Literature Association: http://www.childlitassn.org/
• The International Research Society for children's Literature: http://www.irscl.ac.uk/
• Overview article on the scholarship of children's literature in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_literature
• Association for Library Service to Children:
  http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/index.cfm

Instruction & Tours

• To schedule a personal or group instruction session or tour please contact Sylvia Tag: sylvia.tag@wwu.edu
• Librarians serve as liaisons to colleges, departments and programs on campus. To schedule an instruction session or tour with the librarian who works with your academic discipline, consult our list of subject librarians.