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Writing for Children and Young Adults: Encyclopedias and Current Events

Literature Resource Center (LRC)

Gale Literature Resource Center

With one search, you can read book reviews, author biographical information, literary criticism, and more.
The easiest way to search this database is to simply enter an author's name. Click on any of the active tabs (not all tabs will necessarily have content) to see: Biographies; Literary Criticism, Articles, & Work Overviews; Bibliographies; Additional Resources (usually author web sites); and a Literary-Historical Timeline (see events and people from the author's time period).

For example, if you enter a search on the author, Kate Dicamillo, your results will include:

  • A biography of her from the series, Contemporary Authors. Includes: career history; awards; bibliography; media adaptations of her work. You'll also learn that she describes herself as "short and loud."
  • The text of her 2004 Newbery Award acceptance speech, We Do Not Do Battle Alone.
  • An essay about Dicamillo written by young adult author Jane Resh Thomas and published in Horn Book Magazine.
  • Lots of reviews of her books, published in magazines including: New York Times Book Review; Horn Book Magazine; Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books; and Publisher's Weekly.

Credo Reference

 

 

Credo Reference is an online reference collection, and it features full-text content from hundreds of reference books covering a broad range of subjects. It's a search engine like Google, but instead of searching the entire Internet, your results come from a comprehensive library of scholarly reference sources without advertisements, clutter, or irrelevant hits.

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)

 

Like Credo Reference, GVRL is an online reference collection.  The difference?  The books that comprise this database are different, so you'll get different results.  It's worth checking both.  

CQ Researcher

 

CQ Researcher consists of weekly reports on current events, with an archive that goes back to 1923. Each report includes an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.