Create Your Own Children's Booklists

with these online databases

The Children's Picture Book Database at Miami University

The Children's Picture Book Database at Miami University is a bibliography of books for books for children, preschool to third grade that can be used to design literature-based thematic units. It is searchable by topics, concepts, and skills. While the database is particularly useful for teachers and librarians, it can also greatly benefit parents eager to find picture books on specific topics for their children. If you are looking for a book about a particular subject, you can do a keyword search of the database. There are more than 900 keywords, arranged in alphabetical order. The database includes in excess of 5,000 picture books.

For example, when I looked up the keyword "Africa," I found 23 books listed. When I looked up the keyword "alphabet," I found 122 children's books listed. Each listing included the title, author, date of publication, publisher, a brief abstract, and all of the keywords that applied. This is an excellent resource, one I use often.

The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature

The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature is another excellent resource for parents, teachers, and librarians. You can search for books by age level, from pre-school through 14+, by setting, historical period, the ethnicity/nationality of the protagonist or the tale, the gender of the protagonist, the format or genre of the book, and the publication year, among other things.

When I searched for award-winning chapter books for 10-12 year olds that were set during the Depression, with a female protagonist, I found nine books. Each listing included the title, author, illustrator, year of publication, award, and a brief summary of the book. This is an easy to use database. The fact that you can develop booklists by age level, as well as genre, format, and other criteria, makes it extremely useful.

The database includes winners of more than two dozen different awards, including the Amelia Frances Howard Gibbon Award, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children, the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, the Caldecott Medal, the Governor General Children's English Language Award, and the Newbery Medal.

I hope you find these online resources helpful. I certainly have.