Need Help?
Chat or Email
Reference Desks
Undergraduate (UGL): 313-577-8852
Purdy/Kresge: 313-577-6423
Arthur Neef Law: 313-577-6180
Shiffman Medical: 313-577-1094
LibGuide Rating
Welcome to the guide for Children's Literature!
We hope that you will find this guide a useful starting place for your research in Children's Literature. We have assembled a core collection of resources available through the Wayne State University Library System, as well as freely available web resources. Included in this guide are books, databases, special collection information, Internet resources, and professional associations. This guide is a collaborative work-in-progress, developed with suggestions and feedback from students and faculty.
The WSU Library System strives to meet your needs for resources and information access. Please contact us if you need any assistance with library resources or services, if you would like to incorporate library resources directly into your Canvas site, or if you would like to arrange for library instruction for your classroom.
Children's Literature @ WSU
Children's Literature at Wayne State University primarily serves the College of Education, Department of English, Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and the School of Information Science.
The College of Education runs two programs related specifically to children's literature. They are:
- English Education: English Education is concerned with the teaching of literature and composition in middle and secondary schools. Programs emphasize practice and research in language, writing, and response to literature. Degree programs in English Education are available at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
- Reading, Language & Literature: The Reading, Language and Literature Program prepares graduates to work in schools, school districts or private organizations as classroom or reading teachers, clinicians, consultants or program coordinators, or, at the doctoral level, in colleges or universities as teacher educators and/or researchers.
The Department of English offers courses in Children's and Young Adults' Literature and Child Language Acquisition (cross-listed with the Linguistics and Psychology departments).
The Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures offers a minor in Folklore and Fairy-Tale Studies.
The School of Information Science offers several courses related to library services for young people, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Public Library Services to Children and Young Adults.
WSU eBooks
Children's Literature by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781317212133Publication Date: 2019Children's Literature is an accessible introduction to this engaging field. Carrie Hintz offers a defining conceptual overview of children's literature that presents its competing histories, its cultural contexts, and the theoretical debates it has instigated.
Children's Literature in Action by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781440867798Publication Date: 2019This practitioner-oriented introduction to literature for children ages 5-12 covers the latest trends, titles, and tools for choosing the best books and materials as well as for planning fun and effective programs and activities.
Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature by Call Number: ebookISBN: 0415965055Publication Date: 2010This landmark volume is the first to bring together leading scholarship on children's and young adult literature from three intersecting disciplines: Education, English, and Library and Information Science. Distinguished by its multidisciplinary approach, it describes and analyzes the different aspects of literary reading, texts, and contexts to illuminate how the book is transformed within and across different academic figurations of reading and interpreting children's literature.
Multicultural and Ethnic Children's Literature in the United States by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781538138397Publication Date: 2020Multicultural and Ethnic Children's Literature in the United States focuses on the history of the development of this literature, from the nineteenth century to the present day. This book provides a cultural and political context for the early development of this literature. It emphasizes the "self-determining" viewpoints and activities of diverse people as they produce materials for the young.
Intergenerational Solidarity in Children's Literature and Film by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781496831965Publication Date: 2021Winner of the 2023 Edited Book Award from the International Research Society for Children's Literature. In the face of global aging, changing family structures, family separations, economic insecurity, and political trends pitting young and old against each other, intergenerational solidarity is now, more than ever, a pressing need. Intergenerational Solidarity in Children's Literature and Film argues that productions for young audiences can stimulate intellectual and emotional connections between generations by representing intergenerational solidarity.
LGBTQAI Books for Children and Teens by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9780838916926Publication Date: 2018Stories about characters within the spectrum of LGBTQAI+ continue to evolve and show a broader swath of queer characters, both primary and secondary. This title from the American Library Association provides a guide to some of the books available.
Children's Literature in Second Language Education by Call Number: Electronic BookISBN: 9781441129789Publication Date: 2012The latest research and new perspectives into the uses of children's literature in second language teaching for children and young adults. Covers such topics as extensive reading, creative writing in the language classroom, the use of picture books and graphic novels in second language teaching and the potential of children's literature in promoting intercultural education.
Search the Library Catalog Juvenile Collection
Searching for Children's Books
- NoveList K-8 Plus This link opens in a new windowFind just the right book by subject, age level, awards, Lexile reading level, Common Core standards, and much more. Read reviews, learn about the author, and find readalikes.
- A Book and a HugThis website and app matches books to a young reader's "reader personality type." You can also search for books by genre, curriculum connection, reading levels and more.
- Children's Book CouncilDatabase of children's books created by the nonprofit trade association for children's book publishers in North America. Datasbase is searchable by age, format, genre, and award.
- Database of Award Winning Children's LiteratureSearch by award, genre, gender, ethnicity and more. Compiled by a librarian.
MeL Books
Why You Should Read Children's Books Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by ISBN: 9781526610072Publication Date: 2019Katherine Rundell explores how children's books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children's fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world. This delightful and persuasive essay is for adult readers.
Wild Things by ISBN: 9781451609950Publication Date: 2017An irresistible, nostalgic, insightful--and totally original--ramble through classic children's literature from Vanity Fair contributing editor (and father) Bruce Handy. In 1690, the dour New England Primer, thought to be the first American children's book, was published in Boston. Offering children gems of advice such as "Strive to learn" and "Be not a dunce," it was no fun at all. So how did we get from there to "Let the wild rumpus start"? And now that we're living in a golden age of children's literature, what can adults get out of reading Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, or Charlotte's Web and Little House on the Prairie? In Wild Things, Bruce Handy revisits the classics of American childhood, from fairy tales to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and explores the backstories of their creators, using context and biography to understand how some of the most insightful, creative, and witty authors and illustrators of their times created their often deeply personal masterpieces.
The Stories Behind the Stories by ISBN: 9781638190417Publication Date: 2021Did you know that the Very Hungry Caterpillar was originally just a fat worm named Willi? Or that the author of Charlotte's Web hatched real spiders on top of his dresser? In The Stories Behind the Stories, you'll hear the incredible behind-the-scenes tales of twenty-nine beloved children's classics. Discover the childhood inspiration behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the original name of Curious George, the mysterious origin of Mother Goose, and what happened when Maurice Sendak told his editor he couldn't draw wild horses (spoiler alert: he drew wild things instead).
A History of Children's Books in 100 Books by ISBN: 9781770859579Publication Date: 2017A History of Children's Books in 100 Books takes a global perspective and traces the development of the genre from ancient stories, such as Aesop's Fables and the Indian Panchatantra, through the Puritan primers of the 17th century to the Harry Potter series and books as technology. Taking the approach of its precursor, The History of the Book in 100 Books, this book is about children's books as artifacts, as well as the texts they contain, and the industry and society that produced them. It covers aspects of selection, design, production and marketing of books for children.
The ABC of It by ISBN: 9781517908010Publication Date: 2019Original artwork and materials explore children's literature and its impact in society and culture over time. A favorite childhood book can leave a lasting impression, but as adults we tend to shelve such memories. For fourteen months beginning in June 2013, more than half a million visitors to the New York Public Library viewed an exhibition about the role that children's books play in world culture and in our lives. After the exhibition closed, attendees clamored for a catalog of The ABC of It as well as for children's literature historian Leonard S. Marcus's insightful, wry commentary about the objects on display. Now with this book, a collaboration between the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature and Leonard Marcus, the nostalgia and vision of that exhibit can be experienced anywhere.
