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CSE 455/555

Adolescent Literature

Getting Acquainted with Children's & Young Adult Literature

Whether you are looking for more information about a class novel, trying to match books with readers, or looking for books centered around a particular theme or topic, the children's and young adult literature databases listed below can help you find the perfect book for any occasion.  These databases provide multiple ways to search by subject, genre, author, reading level, age, and much more.

Children's & Young Adult Literature Databases

The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) provides comprehensive coverage of children's and young adult books, reviews, awards and teaching materials. It reviews 3,000 books annually covering 24 sources since 1993.  This database includes a multitude of search options to include reading metrics, reader's age/grade, genre, and publication information.  Book results can include links to curriculum resources, professional reviews, associated reading programs, related books, synopsis, and awards.

Access the database through the UA Library Homepage or by Clicking HERE.

On the CLCD Homepage, click on "Product Login" and select "Enterprise PK-12".

Image of the homepage of the Children's Literature Database showing where the login link is located. The option for Enterprise PK-12 is circled.

The Advanced Search Screen gives you numerous search options to use.  Image of the advanced search screen within the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. This screen has numerous filter options including age, grade, reading metrics, publication year, genre, and award status.

Each book record will have a multitude of resources connected to it.  Click on the options tabs in the middle of the screen to jump to each resource.  You can also easily check to see if the book is available for check out through the UA Library from this screen.

Image of the book record for the book, Wonder, within the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. The record shows the link for how to check if the book is available through the Gorgas Library. It also highlights the area of the record where the user can jump to additional content related to the book.

TeachingBooks.net is an online database of multimedia resources for children's and young adult books.  The site offers educational materials to help readers connect with books, gain insights from authors, and enjoy reading.  The site offers resources for K-12 students and educators in English and Spanish.  It includes more than 275,000 resources about fiction and nonfiction books.  

Use this database to find the following:

  • Synopses of Children's and Young Adult Literature
  • Author Information
  • Book Discussion Guides
  • Book Trailers
  • Author Videos
  • Lesson Plans
  • Curated Book Lists and Collections

Access this database by going to TeachingBooks.net

On the Homepage, you can use the Search Bar at the top to search by subject, title, or author.  To do more general browsing, click on the "Browse Our Resources" button in the middle of the page.  To save your searches and create personalized book and resource lists, click on the 3 lines in the top left corner and create an Educator's Log In.

 

Aside from using the main search bar to search by specific title or author, it is possible to use this search bar to search by theme.  Notice that on the below image, a search for the term, "Identity" brings back numerous curated book lists that are focused on the theme of "Identity".

Image of the search results page from Teaching Books website. The term searched is Identity. The page shows a list of curated book lists that can be clicked on which all relate to the theme of Identity.

 

Browsing by Collection is a powerful way to find curated books based on a variety of factors.  One filter that is unique to this database is the ability to filter by Cultural Experience.

Image of the Browse by Collections page on Teaching Books website. The page is divided into the following categories: Grade Level, Content Area, Cultural Experience, Year Published, Resource Type, Special Collections. Under each category there are further subtopics that the user can link out to.

 

Looking at the Immigrant/Refugee collection, we can see a variety of filters available on the left side of the page.  These can further narrow down our results.  The numbers in parenthesis after each category represent the number of books in the Immigrant/Refugee collection that have that secondary filter.

Image of the search results page on Teaching Books website of the Immigrant/Refugee collection. The filters section of the page has been highlighted with a red box. There are book covers and titles of the books within the collection. The filters section includes the following options: grade level, cultural experience, content area, year published, and resource type.

 

After selecting a book, you will be taken to the book's resource page.  Here you will find links to teaching activities, author information, book trailers, and much more.

Image of the book record of the book The Sun is Also a Star from the Teaching Books website. The book record contains bibliographic information about the book and a list of links to further resources connected to the book.

  The Children's Literature Review Database provides a comprehensive source to locate critical reviews of books and authors.  It is a database that allows searching by author's name or title of a book to find critical information about that author or the title being searched.  It is made up of a compilation of excerpts from reviews, criticism, and commentary on major authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults.  It is primarily critical, but does have overviews of the writer's work and a short biographical section about the author.  If you are looking for book reviews from periodicals like School Library Journal, The Horn Book, or Booklist, this is the database to use.  

Access this database by going to the UA Library Homepage or by clicking HERE.

The database homepage provides a very basic search box to begin with.  Enter either a title of a book (put quotation marks around the title) or an author's name into the search box.

Image of the homepage of Children's Literature Review showing an empty search bar.

Notice that when searching for an author, the database will show results of both reviews of the author's work as well as information and articles about the author.

Image of the search results for author, David Wiesner, on the Children's Literature Review database.

 

When looking at a book review or article, it can be helpful to use the arrows at the top of the screen to resize the image so that the entire page is visible.  Use the arrows to the left and right of the article to navigate to the previous and next pages of the work.

Image of the entry for David Wiesner on the Children's Literature Review Database.