Welcome! The below resources will help you find information & sources for your assignment to understand various genres of children's literature for the K-8 classroom.
A lot of you will find what you need in the help boxes "E-Books" and "Databases & Journal Articles" and I would start there! I've also included more specific sources for some of the topics. If you have trouble finding what you need please e-mail me!
Books generally contain more and broader information than a journal article. They are a great place to get broader context on a given subject. Try limiting Quick Search to e-books & use Children's Literature as your search terms.
Children's Literature by 
The Edinburgh companion to children's literature by Tips on accessing e-books:
Databases are a great way to find articles! There are databases specific to education and literature. This makes it much easier to search and find the information you need quickly.
Try using one of these search terms in combination with one from your genre:
To narrow it further add:
An example search might look like:
Teaching Poetry Elementary
"Picture Books" visual literacy
"Traditional literature encompasses books rendered from oral tradition--stories that have been passed down for ages (Kiefer, 2007)--and as a result are commonly shared throughout the world. This literature includes folktales, myths, fables, and legends." Barone, D. M. (2011). Children's Literature in the Classroom: Engaging Lifelong Readers. Guilford Press.
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
You might also add in a specific country or region for example: Chinese Folklore or Traditional European tales.
For examples, try searching Project Guttenberg for follklore
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
You might also look at previous winners of the Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Awards for children's books.
Historical fiction are situated in the past. It may be based upon dates, people, or events that really happened.
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
"Informational books are sometimes called “nonfiction” books. Their main purpose is to provide a source of knowledge on a variety of topics. Informational texts are written at a variety of reading levels to accommodate diverse learners. Informational texts range from simple word and picture books to those that explain more complex science concepts with photographs and diagrams" (Illinois Early Learning Project)
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
The quotation marks will force the database to search for that exact phrase, which helps narrow your results and exclude sentences like: an informational presentation was given on new books
The American Library Association keeps a list of frequently challenged books as well as a list of resources for libraries facing book challenges.
PEN America (a non-profit for freedom of speech) has a report on book banning in schools.
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
Try combining a search term above (from the Databases & Finding Articles box) with:
