Reading Rockets - This online resource provides an abundance of information and research conducted by educators, and other adults who take children’s reading issues seriously.
Colorín Colorado - From the people who brought you Reading Rockets, Colorín Colorado is a wonderful online resource for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners (ELL).
Kirkus Book Reviews - Find free book reviews for childrens literature.
With an increase of Americans in the United States identifying with more than one culture, there is a need for authentic multicultural resources that accommodate this growing community. The scope of this collection is primarily composed of free databases and searchable multicultural children’s e-resources that will serve as selection tools for information professionals and educators at the Cañada College Library. However, early childhood education (ECE) students, and others looking to expand their knowledge of authentic multicultural children’s literature will benefit as well.
Please contact the author, Valeria Estrada for questions regarding these resources.
Annotation: ADL is a credible organization which includes the selected archive of recommended multicultural & anti-bias books for children. This site is simple, user-friendly and provides easy access points in the form of related links, “featured books archive” that goes back to 2007, Book categories such as “customs and traditions” and “folktales, Legends & Poems.” All types of users interested in this subject will enjoy the ease of use of this resource, and educators and students will appreciate the comprehensiveness of details such as links to how evaluate children’s literature.
Annotation: Noted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) as a wonderful resource to discovering anti-bias literature. The breadth of information is thorough and colorful tabs that direct users to different topics offers ease of use. The “Find Books” tab provides users with an advanced search feature that includes limiters such as: “age,” “book type,” and “making all people visible,” which allows you to choose limiters such as “Racial/Ethnic Identities.” An additional tab translates the entire site to Spanish which will benefit our ESL/ELL learners.
Annotation: This web source is more of a bibliography, but is included because of the authoritativeness of the source and comprehensiveness of the information. CCBC includes in-depth bibliographies and booklists. There is also an “advanced book search” feature which allows you to limit by genre, age, or multicultural categories. Users will appreciate the search tips above this feature. Besides providing an excellent list of multicultural children’s literature, users can identify whether they are a teacher, librarian, or student for example, for additional information tailored to them.
Annotation: DAWCL is a database compiled by Lisa Bartle, a reference librarian at Cal State University, San Bernardino. This websites provides a comprehensive collection of multicultural resources that can be found under the “Search DAWCL” link. Limiters such as “Ethnicity/Nationality of Protagonist or Tale” allow users to find resources that are culturally competent. Frequency of updates to this site is evident as the page was last revised in 2013.
Annotation: ICDL is a collaboration of the University of Maryland’s interdisciplinary research team, and the Internet Archive. This comprehensive collection is easy to use and included an extensive collection of international children’s literature. This e-resource provides superior coverage of hundreds of complete children’s books available in different languages (from English to Farsi) in digitized format. Digitized books can be found through “Simple Search,” or by advanced search by selecting on the bottom left link titled: “Search By Collections.” Those searching for multicultural literature will find the keyword search useful as well as the other limiters provided.
Annotation: IJME is open-access electronic journal that includes peer reviewed articles, and reviews for books and multimedia. This search tab includes limiters in “search,” “date,” and “index terms” categories. Search results yield separate results based type of resource. With a reputable organization and frequent updates, this e-resource will offer authentic and relevant content to all targeted users. [will add an example or two of articles/topics so that users would know what to expect on this site—especially since this is going to appeal to a smaller group of users than some of the other sites]
Annotation: This reputable organization selects their book lists with the help of the Outstanding International Books (OIB) committee which selects notable books annually. The lack of a search feature is forgiven because of the authoritativeness of the web source. Further, the superior coverage and content will provide the best of international and multicultural children’s literature to information professionals, educators, and students alike.