Skip to Main Content

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Curriculum & Instruction 467: Principles of Teaching Literature to Children and Youth: Finding Children's and Young Adult Books

A guide to support students in C&I 467

Recommended Reference Books

Located in the S-Collection, Rooms 101 and 123 Main Library (SSHEL)

Banned Books

Books Under Fire (S.323.445 Sca44bo 2021)

Multicultural Sources

  • Mixed Heritage: Your Source for Books for Children and Teens About Persons and Families of Mixed Racial, Ethnic, and/or Religious Heritage (Q. S.016.3058 B583m)
  • Rainbow Family Collection: Selecting and Using Children’s Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Content (S.028.1624 N143r)
  • Voices from the Margins: An Annotated Bibliography of Fiction on Disabilities and Differences for Young People (S.016.813 W215v)

Book Reviews

  • Children’s Book Review Index (S. 010 C4362)

Book Awards

  • Ethnic Book Awards: A Directory of Multicultural Literature for Young Readers (S.011.62 Y825e)
  • The Newbery & Caldecott Awards: A Complete Listing of Medal and Honor Books (S.028.5079 N423)
  • The Newbery/ Printz Companion: Booktalk and Related Materials for Award Winners and Honor Books (S.016.813 G412n2006)

Authors

Finding Books in Other Languages

  1. Start in the Library Catalog
  2. Select Advanced Search underneath the search box
  3. Change keyword to subject “juvenile fiction” or “juvenile literature” 
  4. Enter a keyword if looking for a specific topic
  5. Scroll down to language and select the language or languages
  6. Click find

Finding Children's and Young Adult Books at Illinois

Most books are located in the School (S-) Collection (Room 123, Main Library) of the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL). Older books may be located in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Room 346, Main Library) or in the Oak Street Facility. The Center for Children's Books also has a collection of non-circulating books for youth. To verify the location of an item, search for the book in the Online Library Catalog. For additional information about physical location of books, see the S-Collection page. If you require assistance locating an item, please ask for assistance at the SSHEL Information Desk.

Call Number Organization in SSHEL for S-Collection

  • S.letter : Juvenile Fiction, organized by author’s last name
  • S.number : Juvenile Nonfiction, organized by Dewey Decimal System
  • SE. : Picture Books, organized by author’s last name
  • SB. : Biographies, organized by last name of the person the book is about
  • Q. : ignore this when finding books in S-Collection, means that the book is considered “oversized”

Library Catalog Hints

The following information will assist you in finding children's and young adult titles and call numbers of books on a given topic.

There are two ways to search the Library Catalog for possible subjects.  For targeted results, search by Subject from the drop down menu. For more general results, search by Keywords from the drop down menu.   

To search with a subject, select “Advanced Search” then “subject” in the drop down menu

  • Subject: “juvenile fiction” for fiction books
  • Subject: “juvenile literature” for nonfiction books
  • Subject: “children’s literature” for books about literature for children and young adults
  • Subject: “history and criticism” add this to the subject “children’s literature” to explore topics

To search more specifically with keywords, select “keyword” in another drop down menu

  • Keyword: “censorship”
  • Keyword: “gender”
  • Keyword: “multiculturalism” 

Additional Sources of Children's Books

Use these resources if you cannot find the book or journal you need in the library catalog and I-Share:

Public Libraries: Champaign Public Library and the Urbana Free Library each have a large collection of children’s books. See website for information about getting a card. 

Subject Guide

Profile Photo
Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library
Contact:
SSHEL (Room 101)
Main Library
1408 W. Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801
General Telephone: (217) 333-2305 Information Services Desk Telephone: (217) 244-1864
Website