The World Wide Web is full of resources for those of us who are interested in children's literature. In the course of researching sites for the About.com Children's Books site, I have found many excellent sites. Three of the most exceptional are profiled below. The criteria that I used in selecting them was that they provide at least some of the following: information on award winning and bestselling books, booklists, annotated bibliographies, and articles on books or subjects important to the field of children's literature.

Kay E. Vandergrift's Special Interest Page
Kay E. Vandergrift is a professor in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University. She approaches children's literature from a feminist viewpoint and from various cultural perspectives. Some of the sections of particular interest on her site are Gender and Culture in Picture Books, Children's Literature, the Social History of Children's Literature, and her most recent page, Literature for Young People, Islamic Traditions and Muslim Cultures. A few of the many topics Vandergrift covers include the importance of reading in the information age, the role of parents and teachers, how children are portrayed in children's literature (in both text and illustrations), the reasons traditional folk and fairy tales have become classics, and the history of childhood. This is a fascinating site and a thought provoking one.

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
Carol Otis Hurst is a well-known author, lecturer, storyteller, and language arts consultant. Her site is another one with an amazing amount of information. The contents include book reviews, classroom activities, literature related to subjects, themes, and curriculum areas, plus children's book authors and illustrators. Each book review includes the grade level of the book, a summary of the story, and a rating. Featured books also include activities and related links. You will also find information about Carol Hurst's books and services, resources for teachers and parents, and copies of Hurst's free children's literature newsletter on this site. While the site focuses on children's literature in the classroom, parents will also find it a most interesting site.

The Children's Literature Web Guide
This site was developed, and is maintained, by David K. Brown, the director of the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources at the University of Calgary. The site includes commentary on children's books, a bulletin board, and the Doucette Library of K-12 Literature Based Teaching Resources, which is an index to books and Internet sites that you can search by title or author. The site also has links to authors, stories, journals, and more. Some of the sections, such as the sections on award winning books, are not up to date, but there are so many good links to valuable resources on this site that it has become one of my favorites.

If you haven't yet visited these sites, I'd encourage you to do so. There is a vast amount of information about children's books on the Internet, and these sites are among the best.