Also of interest…

These are some of my personal favourite book-related sites, plus some that I thought would be useful to librarians but didn’t quite fit in elsewhere.

Spalding, T. (2005). LibraryThing. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from www.librarything.com

 

While the main purpose of the site is to “catalog your books online”, this incredible resource also has invaluable information about book characters, series, awards, authors, events, etc. LibraryThing’s social network includes an excellent “name that book” group for those vaguely remembered details to jog someone else’s memory. I’ve also enjoyed random features such as “members write book summaries in haiku form”.

 

 

Bookish. (2012). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from www.bookish.co.nz

 

Simultaneously searching more than 30 local and international book retail sites, Bookish provides a real-time price comparison in New Zealand dollars and including postage, listing the cheapest first and giving an indication of stock availablilty.

 

 

Search-cube. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from www.search-cube.com

 

“The visual search engine”. Powered by Google, this engine is particularly useful when a combination of images and video are likely to comprise the majority of a search result. Results are presented as large thumbnails on the faces of a cube, which the searcher can manipulate. Hovering over a thumbnail provides a zoomed image and brief information about the link.

 

 

ICDL Foundation. (n.d.). International children’s digital library. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

 

With the admirable goal of ultimately digitising examples of quality children’s literature from every culture and language, this site is a fun place to discover and read some more obscure books not available in local libraries. The ‘simple search’ allows for browsing the Library using graphics for age groups, length of books, content, and (my favourite!) the colour of the book’s cover!

 

 

Information resources for teenagers

Alice! Health Promotion. (2012). Go ask Alice. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/

An anonymous service committed to providing readers “reliable, accurate, accessible, culturally competent information and a range of thoughtful perspectives … concerning their health and well-being”. The Library features almost 20 years of previous questions and answers, divided into six main categories and searchable by keyword. Answers are detailed, and demonstrate respect for the asker, while also appropriate in tone for the teen audience.

 

AwesomeStories. (2012). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://awesomestories.com/

Aiming to make primary source material that Google won’t necessarily pick up readily accessible, this site provides background information on numerous blockbuster movies, as well as on current and historical events. Organised into 8 main categories (e.g. biography, philosophy, etc.) the site is easy to search and fascinating to browse, with abundant images, audio, and video to accompany the meticulously researched texts.

Information resources for children

American Library Association. (2012). Great websites for kids. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://gws.ala.org/

A collection of quality, child-appropriate websites covering a huge range of topics. The content may be searched by category, by keyword, or by browsing “most popular”. Each recommended site is rated by users, and an appropriate age indication given byALA’s compilers. Each page in the database also lists “more like this” with links to related searches to facilitate easy browsing.

 

How stuff works. (2012). Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://howstuffworks.com/

This “award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works” includes an almost overwhelming quantity of, well, stuff! With numerous terrible puns (and overuse of the word “stuff”!), information is organised into categories and sub-categories but is also readily browsable through tabs such as “most popular” and “countdowns”. Quizzes appeal to young readers but here also impart plenty of additional information.

Fiction reading and reviews for teenagers

Tearaway magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://tearaway.co.nz/category/reviews-2/book-reviews/

The review tab from the magazine’s main page leads to reviews of a mixture of music, books, and games, each showing a large cover image and a taster from the review. Reviews of teen fiction are thorough and often include the reviewer’s personal experience as well as suggestions for further reading. New Zealand authors are well-represented and a range of genre covered.

 

Teen blog. (2012). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.wcl.govt.nz/blogs/teens/

 Updated several times a week, this blog features numerous reviews, which also routinely include first words and number of pages. In between, it includes teen eye-catchers such as “fashion Friday” and “Trailer Tuesday”. Other categories for reviews and posts include useful genre labels (e.g. “comedy”, “anime”, etc.) and intriguing content descriptors (e.g. “giant squid”, “exclusive academies for rich kids who form cliques” etc.).

Fiction reading and reviews for children

KidsReads. (2012). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.kidsreads.com/

With author biographies and interviews supplementing masses of reviews, this site also includes brief synopses of selected titles about to be published. The site is designed to appeal to children, with changing displays and giveaways of some featured titles. I found the series information particularly useful, especially as it includes many picture book series as well as novels.

 

Scieszka, J. (n.d.). Guys read. Retrieved May 29, 2012, from http://www.guysread.com/

Promotes ‘the appeal of reading’ to guys, and does it in ways which appeal to guys: reviews and information are brief, and titles can be accessed through various paths e.g. recommendations from famous guys or through the intriguingly-titled category lists which change around each time the home page is refreshed. Definition of ‘reading’ explicitly broadened to include audio books and comics.

Publishers and booksellers

Gecko Press Ltd. (2012). Gecko Press. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.geckopress.co.nz/default.aspx

Purveyors of a small range of “curiously good books” for children, many of them sourced from other cultures and translated into English especially for publication here in New Zealand, Gecko’s easily-navigable site includes featured titles and “you may also like…”, while the ‘bookshop’ catalogues are accesible from either a standard menu or through large appealing illustrations from the books in each age division.

 

Wheelers Books. (2012). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.wheelers.co.nz/

Designed especially to serve school librarians, this site features numerous search options (including series, Dewey classification number, ISBN, etc.) for a vast range of titles for sale, including DVDs and audio books. Availablility and expected delivery time is clearly indicated for each title. The facility to maintain multiple wishlists is particularly helpful for a library with multiple collections and/or sources of funding

Organisations involved in the promotion of reading and literature

Booktrust. (2012). Children’s laureate. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/

The title of Children’s Laureate is “awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children’s books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field”. This site commends and promotes the work of seven pillars of the CYA literature community, and demonstrates the vast scope of ways in which they can enhance children’s reading attitudes and experiences.

 

Kids’ lit quiz. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.kidslitquiz.com/

This website for “the sport of reading” for 10-13 year olds gives details about entering the competitions, plus background information about the concept and the Quiz Master, as well as a timetable of current KLQ events. The most inspirational part of the site is a tantalising smorgasbord of 20 questions from each of 6 previous years’ competitions.

Awards

Children’s Literature Association. (2012). Phoenix award. Retrieved May 29, 2012, from http://chla.wikispaces.com/Phoenix+Award

This page from the Children’s Literature Association wiki describes the criteria for winning this award, as well as the design and crafting of the award itself. Most significant, however, are the links to lists of previous award-winners and honor books: this collection provides a good overview of the enduringly popular in English-language CYA literature.

 

Children’s and young adults’ literary prizes and awards. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/LiteraryPrizes/

 A compilation of links to 22 prestigious awards in the CYA field. The page for each individual prize gives: a succinct overview of what it is awarded for; easy-to-navigate links to the award’s main webpage; and as few as 2 or 3 clicks from this page to find the availability of a specific award-winning title within the libraries’ collections.

Reviews of literature and information resources for children and young people

A New Zealand website

Gill, M. & Orman, L. (Eds.). KidsBooksNZ. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://kidsbooksnz.blogspot.co.nz/

A blog updated with at least two new reviews almost every weekend, covering all types of books: fiction, non-fiction, and picture books. Review content often includes information about awards won or pending, other works by the same author or in the same genre, and what kind of reader (or teacher!) is likely to find the reviewed title appealing.    

An overseas website

Books for keeps. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/

With the magazine of the same name reviewing over 1000 titles per year, this site contains masses of well-written information about books, authors, and reading for children, and related issues. Content is readily searchable, with both simple and advanced options (which allow specification of date, reader age, genre, etc.) but the site is also a treat to browse.