This page is a great starting place to learn a bit about children's literature and to find out what resources the VPCC Library has to support our patrons in learning about and enjoying these important books.
While our children's section is smaller than what you can expect to find at the public library, we focus on high quality materials that demonstrate the wide range of genres and styles these books can have. And, as always, if you are having trouble finding what you are looking for, reach out and ask a librarian.
This is just a tiny fraction of the materials the VPCC libraries hold on children's literature. To find more try searching the catalog for "children's literature". You can make your search more specific by adding AND plus terms like "bullying", "racism", "gender", or any other specific aspect of literature you are interested in learning about.
The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature
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From Maria Edgeworth, Dr Seuss and Lewis Carroll to Sherman Alexie, Sharon Flake, and Gene Luen Yang, this is a comprehensive introduction to studying the infinitely varied worlds of literature for children and young adults. Exploring a diverse range of writing, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature includes: - Chapters covering key genres and forms from fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to picture books, graphic novels and fairy tales - A history of changing ideas of childhood and adolescence - Coverage of psychological, educational and literary theoretical approaches - Practical guidance on researching, reading and writing about children's and young adult literature - Explorations of children's and young adult film, TV and new media In addition, "Extending Your Study" sections at the end of each chapter provide advice on further reading, writing, discussion and online resources as well as case study responses from writers and teachers in the field. Accessibly written for both students new to the subject and experienced teachers, this is the most comprehensive single volume introduction to the study of writing for young people.
Essentials of Children's Literature
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In the new edition of this widely popular resource, the well-known, highly respected author team presents a brief compendium of information about and resources for helping future and new teachers share literature with children. Essentials of Children's Literature, 8/e is designed to awaken and motivate readers to the joy of reading. It presents a rich array of available trade books that can be used effectively to teach children's literature, while also ensuring coverage of the most important knowledge about literature and about teaching literature to children. Clear, concise, and direct, the book uses recommended book lists, examples, figures, and tables in combination with narrative and prose to empower teachers to free classroom time to involve children with literature.
Reading Children's Literature
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Reading Children's Literatureoffers insights into the major discussions and debates currently animating the field of children's literature. Informed by recent scholarship and interest in cultural studies and critical theory, it is a compact core text that introduces students to the historical contexts, genres, and issues of children's literature. A beautifully designed and illustrated supplement to individual literary works assigned, it also provides apparatus that makes it a complete resource for working with children's literature during and after the course. The second edition includes a new chapter on children's literature and popular culture (including film, television, and merchandising) and has been updated throughout to reflect recent scholarship and new offerings in children's media.
The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture
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Focusing on significant and cutting-edge preoccupations within children's literature scholarship, The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture presents a comprehensive overview of print, digital, and electronic texts for children aged zero to thirteen as forms of world literature participating in a panoply of identity formations. Offering five distinct sections, this volume: Familiarizes students and beginning scholars with key concepts and methodological resources guiding contemporary inquiry into children's literature Describes the major media formats and genres for texts expressly addressing children Considers the production, distribution, and valuing of children's books from an assortment of historical and contemporary perspectives, highlighting context as a driver of content Maps how children's texts have historically presumed and prescribed certain identities on the part of their readers, sometimes addressing readers who share some part of the author's identity, sometimes seeking to educate the reader about a presumed "other," and in recent decades increasingly foregrounding identities once lacking visibility and voice Explores the historical evolutions and trans-regional contacts and (inter)connections in the long process of the formation of global children's literature, highlighting issues such as retranslation, transnationalism, transculturality, and new digital formats for considering cultural crossings and renegotiations in the production of children's literature Methodically presented and contextualized, this volume is an engaging introduction to this expanding and multifaceted field.
Your VPCC Librarians have put together a number of virtual collections around children's literature. These include award winners, books in verse, and more.
Below are some common subject headings applied to children's books to help you find specific types of materials in the catalog. Some might need to be combined with AND children's literature to weed out books aimed at adults.
This chart, adapted from Cullinan and Galda's Literature and the Child, provides brief descriptions of children and young adult literature genre's (Cullinan & Galda, 2002, p. 8). When searching for children's books in the Library Catalog, you may notice categories identified as subject genre/form.
| Picture Books | Interdependence of art and text. Story of Concept presented through combination of text and illustration. Classification based on format, not genre. All genres appear in picture books. |
| Poetry & Verse | Condensed language, imagery. Distilled, rhythmic expression of imaginative thoughts and perceptions. |
| Folklore | Literary heritage of humankind. Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and songs from the past. Oral tradition; no known author. |
| Fantasy | Imaginative worlds, make-believe. Stories set in places that do not exist, about people and creatures that could not exist, or events that could not happen. |
| Science Fiction | Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to their logical outcomes. Stories about what might occur in the future. |
| Realistic Fiction | "What if" stories, illusion of reality. Events could happen in real world, characters seem real; contemporary setting. |
| Historical Fiction | Set in the past, could have happened. Story reconstructs events of past age, things that could have or did occur. |
| Biography | Plot and theme based on person's life. An account of a person's life, or part of a life history; letters, memoirs, diaries, journals, autobiographies. |
| NonFiction | Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept. |
References
Cullinan, B.E. and Galda, L. (2002). Cullinan and Galda’s literature and the child (p. 8). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
