Librarian
Choosing a Culture or Theme
- Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's BooksFrom Social Justice Books. Guidelines and check lists to help you choose a diverse book without bias or stereotypes.
- Social Justice BooksLists diverse books by culture or theme
- Diverse BookFinderAn initiative of Bates College to uncover multiculturalism in picture books. Scroll down and use the filters on the left side of the page to identify titles by race/culture and other criteria.
Book Lists and Resources
The follow resources will have you identify books related to your theme or culture. Most either have a list organized by theme, or have a search filter that allows you to refine the titles by culture/theme.
- CLCD (Children's Literature Comprehensive Database) This link opens in a new windowResource for exploring children's/young adult literature. Allows you to search for titles by genre, age/grade level, reading level, award/honor status, and many other criteria. Provides reviews, teacher resources, and more.
- Color of Us: Multicultural Children's BooksAllows you to view a list of diverse books by ethnicity/culture and by reading level.
- Database of Award-Winning Children's LiteratureAlthough this site doesn't provide reviews per se, you can use it to generate customized lists of award-winning books.
- Diverse BookFinderAn initiative of Bates College to uncover multiculturalism in picture books. Scroll down and use the filters on the left side of the page to identify titles by race/culture and other criteria.
- Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators: Diversity ResourcesList of award winning diverse books, and resources for parents, educators, authors, and illustrators.
- We Need Diverse Books: ResourcesLists of diverse books, and organizations promoting them.
Finding Information on Authors
As you are choosing your titles, you might want to learn more about an author and their background. Below are some library resources that contain biographies. If your author is a new writer, or hasn't published much, you may not find information on them, but these resources are a good place to start.
- Gale Literature: Something About the Author This link opens in a new windowBiography, criticism, recommended reading, and other information about authors of children's and young adult literature. Covers more than 12,000 individuals, from Caldecott and Newbery award-winners to the latest writers.
- Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new windowIncludes Something About the Author, as well as Children's Literature Review, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and other sources of biographical and critical information about authors.
Additional places to look could be the author's website or the publisher's website. A simple web search of the author's name may also help you find interviews, speaking events, social media profiles or other material to help you learn more about them.