Note: The sources listed
below all have to do with children’s authors, but they might not all be right
for your needs. You need to evaluate the sources as you find them and determine
which ones you should use. Also, you may find valid sources on your own that
are not on this list—it is not all-inclusive. Rather, it is a starting point.
There are six
sections to this pathfinder:
Books in the RHS Library Collection
Books borrowed from Lime Kiln
Book borrowed from the Howard County
Public Library
Databases accessed through RHS Library
Databases accessed through the Howard County
Public Library
Web Resources
Appendix A: List of Children’s Authors in the RHS
Media Center
Books
in the RHS Library Collection
Something to know: None
of these books is an about individual author; they are all large biography
volumes. If you want to see if a library (RHS or other) has a whole book
about your author, you should search the author’s name (last name first) in
a SUBJECT search. (If you do this in an author search, it will find books
by, not
about, your author.
REF 920 BIO –
Biography
Today Author Series: Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers
Why 920? Nine-hundred twenty
(920) is the Dewey number for Biography.
Description:
Twelve Volumes (1995 to 2002)
Look for the
Hot Pink cover.
What’s in it?
About a dozen pages each of information about the: youth, education,
career, specialty, books by, and where to find more on the author.
Where to start: The index:
Page 165 of Volume Twelve
It has a cumulative index of all the other books, so you can
find out which one your author is in (if any).
How to cite a book from this series:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from these books, put
the editor’s last name and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Abbey 87)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the editor’s name (last, first), the title (
Biography Today
Author Series: Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers), the
volume number of the one you used, the publication city, the
publisher, the year of publication, and the pages for your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example for volume twelve:
Abbey, Cherie D.
Biography Today Author Series: Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers.
Vol. 12. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2002. 85-102.
REF 809 CO –
The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature
Why 809? Eight-hundred Nine
is the Dewey number for Literary History & Criticism, which often has
information about authors.
Description:
One volume, dictionary size
What’s in it?
Short biographies of ½ - 1 page with the birth, death, highlights
of work, and notable achievements
Where to start: The index:
Pages 851-863
This book has authors as far back as the nineteenth century,
so you want to cut straight to the chase.
How to cite this book:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from this book, put
the editors’ last names and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Cullinan and Person 333)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the editor’s name (last, first), the title (
The Continuum
Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature), the publication city, the publisher,
the year of publication, and the pages for your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example. Your page #s will differ:
·
Cullinan, Bernice E. and Diane G. Person. The Continuum Encyclopedia
of Children’s Literature. New York: Continuum, 2001. 333-334.
REF 820.9 ST –
St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers
Why 809? Eight-hundred Twenty
is the Dewey number for Literature in English, which often has information
about authors.
Description:
One volume, dictionary size, blue cover
What’s in it?
2-4 page biographies of authors with the birth, death, nationality,
education, family, career, highlights of work, notable achievements, and
comments
from the author.
Where to start: Using the
alphabet
This book has no author index, so you’ll have to use the alphabetical
names at the top of the pages to find your author in the same way you’d find
a word in the dictionary.
How to cite this book:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from this book, put
the editors’ last names and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Pendergast and Pendergast 159)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the editor’s name (last, first), the title (
St. James Guide
to Young Adult Writers), the publication city, the publisher, the year
of publication, and the pages for your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example. Your page #s will differ:
·
Pendergast, Tom and Sara Pendergast. St. James Guide to Young
Adult Writers. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999. 158-160.
Books
Borrowed from Lime Kiln
REF 920 KO –
Meet the Authors and Illustrators
Why 920? Nine-hundred twenty
(920) is the Dewey number for Biography.
Description:
Two volumes; thin paperbacks; one yellow, one peach
What’s in it?
With two pages per author, this book emphasizes “the process
each person goes through in the creation of a story” (Kovacs 7). The authors
actually tell you about their writing styles and suggest activities.
Where to start: Table of
Contents
This book has an easy alphabetical table of contents. There
are only sixty authors in each book, so you’ll be able to check for yours
quickly.
How to cite this book:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from this book, put
the editors’ last names and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Kovacs and Preller 37)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the editor’s name (last, first), the title (
Meet the Authors
and Illustrators), the publication city, the publisher, the
volume
number of the one you used, the year of publication, and the pages for
your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example. Your page #s will differ:
·
Kovacs, Deborah and James Preller. Meet the Authors and
Illustrators. Vol. 1. New York: Scholastic, 1991. 36-37.
REF 920 MA –
Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults
Why 920? Nine-hundred twenty
(920) is the Dewey number for Biography.
Description:
Seven volumes (six plus a supplement), blue and pink with words
all over
What’s in it?
With several pages per author, this book has personal information,
education, career, awards, writings by, and “Sidelights” with notes about
specific books, comments from the author, and other interesting information.
Where to start: The Supplement
Author Index: 637-645
This index tells you in which volume your author appears.
You can also use individual volumes indexes to search, but it will be slower.
How to cite this book:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from this book, put
the editor’s last name and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Collier and Nakamura 496)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the editor’s name (last, first), the title (
Major Authors
and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults), the number of the volume
you used, the publication city, the publisher, the year of publication, and
the pages for your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example for volume 6:
·
Collier, Laurie and Joyce Nakamura. Major Authors and Illustrators
for Children and Young Adults. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 2377-2379.
·
Notice the extremely high page numbers. This series does not
go back to 1 for each new book; it just continues.
Book
Borrowed from the Howard County Public Library
810.9 M –
Great Authors of Children’s Literature
Why 810? Eight-hundred Ten
(810) is the Dewey number for American Literature in English.
Description:
One volume, small, maroon
What’s in it?
Rather, who’s in it: A. A. Milne, C. S. Lewis, E. B. White,
Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak, and Judy Blume. There aren’t many authors,
but there’s a lot of information on these few.
*Also of note to anyone:
The first chapter is on “The History and Importance of Writing Children’s
Books” (Mass 11), which might help in an introductory paragraph of your research.
Where to start: Table of
Contents – each author has a ten-page chapter devoted to him/her.
How to cite this book:
After any quote or paraphrased sentence from this book, put
the editor’s last name and the page number in parentheses in your paper.
Ex: (Mass 32)
How to make a works cited entry
for it:
What to put in the works cited
page: the author’s name (last, first), the title (
Great Authors
of Children’s Literature), the publication city, the publisher, the year
of publication, and the pages for your topic (author).
How it will look: This is
an example. Your page #s will differ:
·
Mass, Wendy. Great Authors of Children’s Literature.
San Diego: Lucent, 2000. 33-43.
Databases
Accessed through RHS Library
Although RHS provides access to six different databases for
your use, three will be helpful for your project in ECD: Student Resource
Center and World Book Encyclopedia Online. Database resources are excellent
because you can always trust their validity, and they’re very current. So
if your author died last month, these sources are likely to show that.
Library ID: gators - O
nce you log in, click on “Student Resource Center – Gold.” Then, go to “Literature
Search” in the bottom, left corner. Then, click on 
.
Search
for your author’s last name.
How to cite this source:
You will put the
name of your author in quotes and parentheses after any quotes or paraphrases
from it (because the author’s name is the title of the article). Ex. If my
article is about David Macaulay, I would put (“David Macaulay”) after my quote
or paraphrase.
How to make a works cited
entry for it: The correct way to make a works cited entry for your
source will be at the very bottom of your article.
Login ID: howco | Password 21042 – This is the online version
of the print encyclopedia found in the media center. A nice advantage of
using an online encyclopedia is that it is constantly updated, so it will
have more recent information.
Log in, and search your author’s last name.
How to cite this source:
You will put the
name of the person who wrote the article in parenthesis after the quote or
paraphrase. You will find that name under “how to cite this article,” provided
at the bottom of the page.
How to make a works cited entry
for it: The correct way to make a works cited entry for your source
will be at the very bottom of your article in the section called, “how to
cite this article.”
Noodletools will make your bibliography/works cited for you
very easily if you have an account and all the needed information. I
highly
recommend you use it whenever possible. Create an account once, and use it
for the rest of high school.
Click on “NoodleBib 6.” Select “Create new folder.” Select
“an account linked to my library's or school's subscription.”
School/Library Username:
Reservoir High
School/Library Password: gators. Then, you
set up an account. When you do, write your username and password in your
agenda book on your birthdate.
The tool gives you a list of choices for what resource you’re
using and tells you exactly what information to enter. Then, it formats it
and allows you to save and print it! (So, you want to bring the resources
you used with you to the computer to use it.)
Databases
Accessed through the Howard County Public Library
(HCPL)
IF YOU DON’T HAVE A PUBLIC LIBRARY CARD, GET ONE!! The HCPL
provides dozens of databases available to you for free—with information about
everything from automotive repair to Mozart to kangaroos—all you need is a
library card.
Two of the HCPL databases will be particularly useful for this
project—Literature Resource Center & Biography Resource Center.
Log in using your library barcode (found on the back of your
card—14 numbers long, starting with 21267…).
Search using the last name of your author.
Find yours in the list, and when you click, it will probably
give you 2 or 3 resources on your author.
How to cite this source:
You will put Literature
(for Literature Resource Center) and the first one or two words
of your article in parentheses after a quote or paraphrase. For example,
I looked up an article on David Macaulay called “David Macaulay,” so my parenthetical
citation would be (Literature, “David Macaulay”)
How to make a works cited entry
for it: The correct way to make a works cited entry for your source
will be at the very bottom of your article in the section called, “source
citation.”
Log in using your library barcode (found on the back of your
card—14 numbers long, starting with 21267…).
Search using the last name of your author.
Find yours in the list, and when you click, it will probably
give you several resources on your author. Check to see if the “Narrative
Biography” tab has anything in it because this will probably be the most useful
information for you.
How to cite this source:
You will put Biography
(for Biography Resource Center) and the first one or two words
of your article in parentheses after a quote or paraphrase. For example,
I looked up an article on Madeleine L’Engle called “Madeleine
(Camp Franklin) L'Engle
,” so my parenthetical citation would be (Biography, “Madeleine
”)
How to make a works cited entry
for it: This one gets tricky because it’s not provided for you at
the bottom. You will use this format and delete anything in brackets [ ],
replacing it with your information. Another
great option is
to use Noodletools and let it do the work for you because listing databases
can be
very complicated. Luckily, much of the information you need,
such as original source and database can be found at the bottom of the article.
You can copy and paste it as needed.
Format: [Author last name,
first name]. "[Article title.]" [Original Source of Article]. [Date
of Original Source]: [page numbers]. [Name of Database Used]. Literature
Resource Center. Howard County Public Library. Columbia, MD. [Date of Access]
<http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/howard_main?db=LitRC>.
Example: “David Macaulay.”
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 61:
American Writers for Children Since 1960: Poets, Illustrators, and Nonfiction
Authors. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Glenn E. Estes, Graduate
School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Tennessee. The Gale
Group, 1987. pp. 177-188. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Literature Resource
Center. Howard County Public Library. Columbia, MD. 6 Nov. 2005. <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/howard_main?db=LitRC>.
First of all, you should know that every web page you use should
be scrutinized for to see if it CARES. That is, is it:
Current,
Accurate,
Reliable,
Easy, and
Supported? If it’s not all of these
things (which
most portfolios aren’t), you shouldn’t use it. You need
to know that your portfolio has good information written by honest people who
care about their work. It’s best to stick to portfolios that end in “.edu,”
“.gov,” or “.org” for school research, rather than “.com.” I think you’ll
find that all of the sources below meet the cares criteria. Make sure any
page you find on your own does, too, by asking these questions about it:
