Kidlit Central

By Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 4/1/1998

Help is out there for weary travelers in search of good children's literature sites

The problem: the Web is overflowing with children's literature sites, and you're overwhelmed. The strategy: locate an all-inclusive Web site to help guide you through the online world of children's books. The solution: the Children's Literature Web Guide, which contains links to practically all the sites you'll want to visit. The CLWG is brought to you by David K. Brown, a librarian and director of the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Who Gets the Bouquet?

Our tour starts at CLWG's well-designed, well-organized home page. "Features" contains news and time-sensitive resources. "Discussion Boards" lists conferences and queries from librarians. "Quick Reference" offers reference resources, and "More Links" provides tons of links to related sites. Outstanding sites get a flower-bouquet graphic.

Next, let's explore CLWG's "Features" section and its "Web Traveler's Toolkit." Our first cyberjump is to Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site. Hurst, an author, teacher, and storyteller, created a site where you can search for reviews by title, author, type, or grade level. The site also offers a list of curricular themes. "Colonial America," for example, lists related books and a link to a Native American section -- which, in turn, offers more booklists and even a sample chart for organizing information about traditional customs.Now we'll jump to Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature by Roxanne Hsu Feldman. Be sure to check out the "Lists" section, which contains thematic booklists and other links to such topics as the environment, deaf characters, and time travel.

Links, Links, and More LinksNext, we'll move on to CLWG's "Quick Reference" section, where you can find the Doucette Index to K-12 Teaching Ideas for Literature. The Doucette Index is a searchable online catalog. Search by author, illustrator, or book title and you'll find book or Web site citations that offer ideas for using literature in the curriculum. For example, if you search for Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (HarperCollins, 1955), you'll get citations like More Story Stretchers: More Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books (Gryphon House, 1991), by Shirley C. Raines.

Now go to CLWG's "More Links" section. First, explore "Authors on the Web" and cyberjump to Invite an Author. Take a look at the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to find out how to invite an author to your library and what it will cost. Second, jump to Ask the Author, which is part of the Internet Public Library. Here you can fill out a form to ask an author a question via e-mail.

Third, jump to Authors' Birthdays (a gopher site), so kids can send their favorite authors a drawing or card. Finally, be sure to visit Inkspot's Children's Author Directory, one of the most complete lists of author Web sites.

Now we'll backtrack to CLWG's "More Links" section, jump to "Internet Book Discussion Groups," and then jump again to Byte into Books (also called A World of Readers), where kids 18 and under offer their own reviews. Returning to "Discussion Groups," we end our tour by visiting Mailing Lists Related to Children's Literature where you can learn how to join the kidlit-l, childlit, storytell, pubyac, or kidsbooks lists.

Web Addresses

• Children's Literature Web Guide
  www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
• Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
  www.carolhurst.com
• Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature
  www.users.interport.net/~fairrosa/
• Doucette Index to K-12 Teaching Ideas for Literature
  www.educ.ucalgary.ca/litindex
• Invite an Author
  www.snowcrest.net/kidpower/authors.html
• Ask the Author
  (Internet Public Library)
  www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/AskAuthor.html
• Authors' Birthdays
  gopher://lib.nmsu.edu:70/11/.subjects/Education/.childlit/.authors/.birthdates
• Inkspot's Children's Author Directory
  www.inkspot.com/author/directory.html
• A World of Readers
  (Internet Public Library)
  www.ipl.org/youth/ByteBookie/
• Mailing Lists Related to Children's Literature
  www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/listserv.html