Researching African American Children's Literature

BOOKS

The majority of the books in our collection may be found using LC Subject Heading searches in the UW Libraries catalog for:
African Americans Juvenile Fiction
African Americans Juvenile Literature
African Americans Juvenile Poetry
African Americans Biography Juvenile Literature
African Americans Folklore Juvenile literature

Items can also be found by doing Keyword searches using the following combinations of terms:
African Americans Literature Childrens
African Americans Literature Juvenile
African Americans Literature Young Adult
 

The following resources are especially useful in researching and developing special collections in this genre:

Field, Carolyn W.
Special collections in children's literature.
Chicago, Ill. : American Library Association, 1982.

Jones, Dolores Blythe (ed.)
Building a special collection of children's literature in your library : identifying, maintaining, and sharing rare or collectible items.
Chicago : American Library Association, 1998.

Martin, Michelle H.
Brown Gold : milestones of African-American children's picture books, 1845-2002 / by Michelle H. Martin
United States Routledge Taylor & Francis Inc 2004

ARTICLES

MLA international bibliography of books and articles on the modern languages and literatures - UW restricted - Online version contains bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore, and includes coverage from 1963 to the present. Provides access to scholarly research in over 3,000 journals and series; also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats. Use the keywords "African American" and either "children's literature" or "young adult literature" to find articles pertaining to the genre.

Children's catalog -- UW restricted
A selective annotated list of fiction and nonfiction books and magazines for children from preschool through sixth grade, along with review sources and other professional aids for children's librarians and school media specialists. Do a Smart Search or keyword search using the terms "African American."

Dissertation Abstracts - UW restricted
Includes citations for dissertations ranging from 1861 to those accepted last semester; represents the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. Current dissertations offer some of the latest research on this topic.
Use the keywords "African American" and  "children's literature" or "young adult literature" to find abstracts pertaining to the genre.

Theses and dissertations not available through the Orbis/Cascade Alliance are requestable from UWorld Express for all current UW students, faculty and staff. Please allow time for the materials to be requested for you. A 24-page preview is available online for all material submitted since 1997.

Ethnic newswatch- UW restricted
Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic and minority press in America. Use the keywords "children's literature," "juvenile literature," or "young adult literature" and select "Ethnic Group"  African American/Caribbean/African from the drop down menu.

Expanded Academic Index - UW restricted
Indexes some of the Children's/Young Adult review periodicals. Use the keywords "African American children's literature" and "African American    young adult literature."

Horn Book Guide Online- UW restricted
Offers "short, critical reviews of virtually every hardcover trade book published in the United States for young people" since 1989.
Searchable by subject, author, illustrator, rating and grade level.
Horn Book Index- Indexes Horn Book Magazine from 1924-1989.   Z1037.A1 D39 1990

WEBSITES

The de Grummond Collection- Resource bibliography for the Study of African-American Children's Literature
A comprehensive guide to research and bibliographic resources for researching African American children's literature compiled by the University of Southern Mississippi. Includes articles about history and criticism, past and present, as well as links to online resources, reading lists and recommended teaching materials. Some items in the catalog can be found using the Subject terms "African American and juvenile literature" and "African American and children's literature." 

The Coretta Scott King Awards Page - American Library Association
The American Library Association's cumulative listing of all winners of the Coretta Scott King award. Presented annually to an African American author and an African American illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution published during the previous year.

Fifty Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know
A list of fifty multicultural books that includes African American titles, organized by age group from preschool to age 12.  Compiled by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education,University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Children's Lit.com - Guide to African and African American Literature
Book reviews of African and African American literature including history, art, music, folktales and award books.

Lee and Low Books
An independent children's book publisher specializing in multicultural books.  African American lessons plans, resources, and publications. Feature for Black History Month.

Librarian's Index to the Internet - The African American Experience
A page devoted to African American and Black History Month resources.  Includes links to Children's and K-12 websites.

A Guide to Collections of African American Literature
A comprehensive list of links to collections of African American Literature and collections, including children's literature. Compiled by the Special Collections Library at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University in Boston, MA.

Multicultural Children's Lit.com
A web guide that includes links to Children's Literature, School Library Media and Teachers' links related the African American genre.

Background Readings on Gender and Culture - A Bibliography
Bibliography of  "highly selected list of readings includes monographs, articles, curriculum guides, and reference tools representing various standpoints from which to consider" gender and culture. Compiled by Professor Kay E. Vandergrift, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University.

African American Small Press
A list of African American Small Press and contact information including addresses, phone numbers and in some case, email addresses. Compiled by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education,University of Wisconsin-Madison.

OTHER LITERATURE COLLECTIONS

The de Grummond Collection at The University of Southern Mississippi
"The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection owns more than 3000 books which depict Black Americans in stories and pictures. Of these, approximately 400 were published before 1950, 200 before 1900. These holdings have been incorporated into a database of more than 5000 records which contain titles, authors and illustrators of books by and about African-Americans."

The Augusta Baker Collection of African-American Children's Literature and Folklore
A guide to the Augusta Baker Collection at the University of South Carolina. The collection contains over 1,600 children's books, including  "important works by authors like Virginia Hamilton and Tom Feelings, emphasizing the African-American experience in twentieth-century children's literature, and numerous anthologies of folktales and stories from many cultures, used by Augusta Baker during her career as a storyteller."

The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
"Rare books, prints, photographs, slave narratives, manuscripts, letters, sheet music, foreign language publications and ephemera comprise the impressive special collections component of the Blockson Collection" at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. "The Collection's rare books section is particularly strong in its first editions, as well as its holdings in African, African-American and African-Caribbean publications dating back to the sixteenth century."