Research Guides: Childhood Education and Care Jumpstart Program: Overview

SSU Library Catalog

This library guide is a starting place for resources and information about children's literature genres. Use the tabs below to explore genres: biography, fantasy, folklore & folk tales, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and non-fiction. Find some of these titles in the Education Resource Area Collection, Berry Library, 2nd floor. How to find Children's books in the library video shows how to find books using the SSU library catalog. Check out for more Education Resource Area video tutorials here.

Picture Books: Board Books Wordless and Concept Picture Books Alphabet Picture Books Counting and Predictable		Interdependence of art and text. Story or 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 & fairytales		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.
Non-fiction		Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept.
Chapter Books and Easy Readers
Graphic Novels
Challenged and Banned Books

Adapted from Ashland University Libary's LibGuide to children's literature..LibGuide links created by Rukmal Ryder

Baldwin Library of Children's Literature: Digital Collection (2,500 digitized children's books published in the US and UK, 1850-1900)

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Literature and Language Arts

Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature: a Brief Guide by Barbara Kiefer; Cynthia Tyson
Call Number: Educ. Res. Reserve Charlotte
ISBN: 9780078024429
Publication Date: 2013-03-11
Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature: A Brief Guide provides essential information for designing pre-K-to-8 literature programs.
Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature by Shelby Wolf (Editor); Karen Coats (Editor); Patricia A. Enciso (Editor); Christine Jenkins (Editor)
ISBN: 9780415965057
Publication Date: 2010-10-19
This 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.
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature by Daniel Hahn
ISBN: 9780199695140
Publication Date: 2015-06-01
A to Zoo by Rebecca L. Thomas
ISBN: 9781440834349
Publication Date: 2018-06-21
Whether used for thematic story times, program and curriculum planning, readers' advisory, or collection development, this updated edition of the well-known companion makes finding the right picture books for your library a breeze.

Access the following journals with your SSU Navigator Username and Password

The Early Reader in Children's Literature and Culture by Jennifer Miskec (Editor); Annette Wannamaker (Editor)
ISBN: 9781138931688
Publication Date: 2015-12-11
This is the first volume to consider the popular literary category of Early Readers - books written and designed for children who are just beginning to read independently.
Crossover Picturebooks by Sandra Beckett
ISBN: 9780415730372
Publication Date: 2013-09-20
This booknbsp;situates the picturebook genre within the widespread international phenomenon of crossover literature, examining an international corpus of picturebooks -- including artists' books, wordless picturebooks, and celebrity picturebooks -- that appeal to readers of all ages.
Textual Transformations in Children's Literature by Benjamin Lefebvre (Editor)
ISBN: 9781138850828
Publication Date: 2014-11-10
This book offers new critical approaches for the study of adaptations, abridgments, translations, parodies, and mash-ups that occur internationally in contemporary children's culture.