“Children’s Literature is defined as material written and produced for the information or entertainment of children and young adults. This includes material in all non-fiction, literary and artistic genres in physical and digital formats.” Source Website at Children's Literature, Library of Congress
"A basic definition might state that it (children's literature) is books written for this particular audience; we might also add that it includes books that children and young adults enjoy and have made their own." Source: Cullinan & Galda's Children's Literature and the Child
Some characteristics often associated with children’s literature:
Salisbury University Libraries have two Children's Literature Collections:
1. The largest collection is in the Dr. Ernie Bond Curriculum Resource Center (CRC), located in Conway Hall (TETC: Teacher Education and Technology Center) 226. This collection contains over 20,000 items, which are mostly print materials and include board, picture, early reader, and oversized books, transitional titles, young adult and graphic novels, historical fiction, classical and historical literacy works, ESOL materials, and some specialized text books. New and award winning books are added every year. Books are arranged by Dewey Classification.
2. The Juvenile Collection is located on the third floor of the Guerrieri Academic Commons (GAC), which houses the main campus library. This collection contains over 13,500 items, including all categories and genres of Children's Literature. Books are arranged by Library of Congress Classification. This collection began when Salisbury Normal School opened in 1925 with the first small library in Holloway Hall when it was the only building on campus. Consequently, it is an older collection containing historically significant children's literature from different eras. New and award winning books are added every year.
The primary audience for our collections are students and faculty who are studying Children's Literature through the courses and programs offered within the Seidel School of Education, but our collections are available to anyone, of any age, from the SU and surrounding Salisbury communities.
This chart, adapted from Cullinan and Galda's Literature and the Child, provides brief descriptions of children and young adult literature genre's (Cullinan & Galda, 2002, p. 8). When searching for children's books in the library catalog, you may notice categories identified as subject and genre form.
|
CATEGORY |
GENRES IN CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE |
|
Picture Books |
Interdependence of art and text. Story of 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 |
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. |
|
Nonfiction |
Facts about the real world. Informational books that explain a subject or concept. |
References:
Cullinan, B.E. and Galda, L. (2002). Cullinan and Galda’s literature and the child (p. 8). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Library of Congress. (2014, July 10). Frequently asked questions: Children's and young adults' cataloging program (CYAC). Retrieved from LOC website.
There are a lot of great resources on the web where you can find information about Children's Literature. Here are a list of webpages to explore with description beneath each: