LibGuides: Children's Literature: Book Reviews, Author Info, and Scholarly Sources

Biographies and critical reviews of authors and illustrators

Something About the Author Online This link opens in a new window
Online access to all volumes of the series including entries about the lives and works of authors and illustrators in children's and young adults' literature.
(Gale Cengage)
Cross-search multiple literary source databases: > Gale Literary Sources
Children's Literature Review This link opens in a new window
NOTE: To see all volumes, click on "What's Inside" and then "Children's Literature Review."
Literary criticism in children's and young adult literature from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers and scholarly journals.
(Gale)

The two works listed above are the best for information on children's authors and illustrators, but the two more general databases below also may have some biographies, book reviews, and newspaper articles.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographical, bibliographical and critical content for literature from all time periods and genres. Includes content from Gale's Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Cross-search multiple literary source databases in Gale Literary Sources
(Gale Cengage)

Reference books in the children's room

Children's Literature Review (also online)
Call Number: J Ref j028.52 C536c
Excerpts from reviews, criticism and commentary on books for children and young people. Library has vol. 1-curent
Chilren's Book Review Index
Call Number: J Ref 028.52 C536h
Master index providing access to reviews of chilren's books. The list of journals includes Horn Book and Booklist
Something About the Author (also available online)
Call Number: J Ref 920 S696
Facts and pictures about contemporary authors and illustrators of books for young people
Now also available online!

Finding scholarly and professional magazine articles

Looking for critical works that analyze a particular children's book or author? While there has not been as much scholarship on literature for children as for adults, there are articles, books, and book chapters out there. You can try searching for the title of a particular book, but may want to search for your author's name as well, since there may be articles that analyze his or her work as a whole rather than a single book. Here are some databases to try:

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Provides access to scholarly research in the areas of language, literature, linguistics, and folklore from journal articles, books, essays, proceedings, dissertations, bibliographies & working papers.
For more help, watch the library's MLA tutorials on:
Author/work Searching
Advanced Searches
Using Limiters
Getting Full Text.
(EBSCOhost)
Education Index Retrospective 1929-1983 This link opens in a new window
Covers 1929-1983
Education Source This link opens in a new window
Education Source contains the largest and most complete collection of full-text education journals providing scholarly research and information to meet the needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers. It covers all levels of education — from early childhood to higher education — as well as all educational specialties.
(EBSCOhost)
ERIC This link opens in a new window
Full-text documents for a variety of source types including journal articles, books, conference papers, curriculum guides, policy papers and more. In addition, it provides an education-specific thesaurus that includes controlled vocabulary to help users find what they need.
(EBSCOhost)

Finding book reviews using OneSearch

Our new OneSearch tool seems to do a good job of finding book reviews of contemporary children's books. For older books, you may still need to visit some of the individual databases below to get the best results. The OneSearch box below has been customized to automatically limit to book reviews.

To get the best results in any database, follow these tips:

Place the title of the book in quotation marks, if it is more than one word long (e.g. "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus")
If you get results that don't refer to the book, as can happen if the book has a short title wit common words, add the author's last name to the search
Look for a "content type" or "source type" field where you can limit your results specifically to book reviews.

Databases for book reviews

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database http ://www.clcd.com/#/advancedsearch In this database, look up an author or book title. If there is a green dot by the entry, you can click on the title to see reviews.

Academic Search Complete You can search in this database either for the title of a book (put the title in quotation marks for the best results) or for the name of the author or illustrator. The latter works best if your author or illustrator has a distinctive, rather than common, name. Also remember to look under Search Options (below the search boxes) for an option called "Document Type" and use the menu to select "Book Reviews".

ERIC (Education Resource Information Center) As with Academic search complete, you can search in this database either for the title of a book (put the title in quotation marks for the best results) or for the name of the author or illustrator. Look under Search Options (below the search boxes) for an option called "Publication Type" and use the menu to select "Book/Product Reviews".

Biography in Context also may have some book reviews under the "Magazines and News" tab for an author or illustrator.

Trying to find reviews of an older book?

It is more difficult to find reviews of older books, because very few of the reviews are available online, but we have a database that can help. Book Review Digest Retrospective covers 1905 to 1982. It does not have the full text of the reviews available online, but it will tell you where and when reviews were published. We carry quite a few of the relevant journals and magazines in our print collection. Contact Trish Lenkowski or Rachel McMullin, or visit the library reference desk, if you need more help.

Another valuable resource for finding reviews is Book Review Index. This print series covers 1965 to the present. Like Book Review Digest, you will not find the full text of the reviews, but will find the citations that will lead you to the reviews. This series is shelved in the quiet reading room that is adjacent to the reference area on the main floor of the library (on the other side of the glass wall). The call number is 015 B724a.