Finding books about children's literature

You can search IRIS using an author's name, the book title or subject heading. Use the pull-down menu to indicate what type of information you have entered - for example, Zipes, Jack and AUTHOR (last name first) from the menu. Some helpful subject headings, typically based on genre, include:

	Children's literature -- (country)
	Children's literature -- History and criticism
	Fairy tales -- (country)  
		(use Germany for Grimm Brothers' fairy tales)
	Fair tales -- History and criticism
	Mythology -- (country)
	Mythology in literature
	Fantasy literature
	Realism in literature
	Picture books for children

Keyword searching may also be important to find information about particular stories. Type in the keywords and then leave the pull-down menu selection at WORDS anywhere. You may also use AUTHOR keyword, TITLE keyword or SUBJECT keyword for a keyword search in that part of the record only.

Finding individual works of children's literature

With the scholarly perspective of the University Libraries' collections, you may encounter some difficulties in locating actual works themselves. Try searching IRIS first by entering the story's author or title in AUTHOR (last name first) or TITLE begins with. Alexander Library maintains a collection of children's books to support the program in education so you may be fortunate in finding your story in the Juvenile ("JUV") collection. Another source might be your local public library. If you live on campus, the Newark Public Library is located at 5 Washington Street, just a three-block walk. You may search their catalog first on the Web [http://www.npl.org]. Before visiting the Public Library, please stop at Dana Library's Circulation Desk for a ReBL card. This will enable you to borrow the books you find.

There are a number of web sites that include works of children's literature in full text. They are listed in a separate section that follows.

Finding journal articles

Academic Search Premier: Multidisciplinary database including many scholarly publications in full text (Rutgers-restricted database)
Education Index: Database for education literature. Children's literature is often presented from the classroom teacher's point of view. (Rutgers-restricted database)
Literature Online (LION): Searchable full text of more than 350,000 literary works in the English language-poetry, drama, and prose; 175 full-text literary journals; the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature; and reference sources including bibliographies, biographies, and dictionaries."--from the Rutgers website. Try the CRITICISM & REFERENCE search; here is an example: Keyword(s): Little Princess AND Author/Subject(s): Burnett. (Rutgers-restricted database)
Literature Resource Center: Full-text database providing author's biographies, critical studies of works, bibliographies- includes selected critical material from the publisher's series, Children's Literature Review (Rutgers-restricted database)
MLA International Bibliography: Includes articles from journals on literature, language, folklore (Rutgers-restricted database)

Selected Children's Literature Web Sites

Educator's Reference Desk: FAQ format-- includes list of web sites selected from a teacher's viewpoint in keeping with ERIC's focus on education - includes sites with lesson plans and guidance for parents- also book reviews and lists of award winning books. [http://www.eduref.org]
Children's Literature Association (ChLA): Metasite with numerous links arranged by childhood studies, genre, history, folklore and mythology, book awards, censorship, authors, conferences, coming of age stories- selection reflects scholarly point of view. [http://chla.wikispaces.com/]
Children's and Young Adult Literature Website: University of Washington Libraries' research guide based on their comprehensive children's literature collection numbering approximately 44,000 items. Includes recommended websites. Last modified in April 2008. [http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Childrens/websites/index.html]
Children's Literature Web Guide, Doucette Library, University of Calgary: Often described as the standard setting, most comprehensive site available--However, it has not been updated since 1999. Many links are still active. [http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/]
University of New Mexico: Includes recommended journal indexes, e-journals, web sites, etc.- many resources marked as UNM only are offered by Rutgers University Libraries - check IRIS or the list of Indexes and Databases. Last revised in August 2000. [http://www.unm.edu/~pistoriu/childrenslit.html]

Web sites with children's stories in full text

Aesop's Fables

Includes 655 of the fables with indexing. Also searching option. [http://aesopfables.com/]

Collections of fairy tales by Andrew Lang.

Index to Andrew Lang's Fairy Books as compiled by Emily Crawford. Designed to aid in the use of the print collections although the stories in full text are offered by the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center, a collection of humanities texts in several languages. Index indicates which color collection to check. Alphabetical listing by title. [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modeng0.browse.html]

Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts

Arranged by title of story or collection or subject of tale with links to full text. Also essays written by site author D. I. Ashliman, a retired professor from the University of Pittsburgh (and a Rutgers alum) who continues to conduct research in folklore. [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html]

Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy tales

Includes 127 tales. [http://hca.gilead.org.il/]

Tales collected by the Brothers Grimm

Full-text site with all of the stories from the Margaret Hunt translation first published in 1884. [http://myweb.dal.ca/barkerb/fairies/grimm/]

Stories, Folklore, and Fairy Tales Theme Page (Community Learning Network, CLN)

A source of other sources: full texts of stories, lesson plans, and other materials designed for K-12 teachers. [http://www.cln.org/themes_index.html]

Yahoo: Folk and fairy tales

Offers many links - perspective multicultural- many full-text sites and a few providing criticism with collections of articles. Search option. [http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Mythology_and_Folklore/ Folklore/Folk_and_Fairy_Tales/]