This page emphasizes large, general sites that lead to more specific resources. The primary focus is on literature for children and young adults. 

Literature

African American Literature Online.  A comprehensive guide to African American Literature during the Twentieth Century. Targeted to high school students and adults.

Beyond Good Intentions: Selecting Multicultural Literature. Joy Shioshita. Part of the Oakland, California, Action Alliance for Children site

Celebrating Diversity through Children's Literature.  Contains links to annotated bibliographies of children's multicultural books appropriate for the elementary grades.

The Internet Public Library Multicultural Literature for Children.  Includes an article on why children should read multicultural literature and provides links to numerous resources.

Multicultural Children's Literature in the Elementary Classroom. ERIC Digest. Discusses the importance of multicultural literature.

Multicultural Literature Bibliography Judy McDonald. ALAN Review (Spring 1996)

Multicultural Publishing and Education Catalog. MPEC is a support organization for independent publishers, authors, educators, and librarians fostering authentic multicultural books and materials.

Multicultural Poetry and Prose Exchange. Solicits creative writing submissions. See also: Multicultural Song Index.

Multicultural Resources for Children. Includes literature links, such as African American Literature and History. A good directory of links from the Internet School Library Media Center (ISLMC).

Oyate. (Native American Organization) - This organization works to see that Native American lives and histories are portrayed honestly.  Includes lists of recommended books by grade level and lists of books to avoid.

Reading is Fundamental - Multicultural Books.  Links to online articles.

Standards: The International Journal of Multicultural Studies. See Multicultural Book Reviews in the Fall/Winter 1997-'98 issue, featuring an article on Blue Heron Press.

South Asian Children's Books and Software.  Sponsored by the South Asian Women's Network, this site has an extensive bibliography with links to information about authors.

Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism.  Excellent starting point for analyzing books from a multicultural perspective.

Vandergrift's Children's Literature Page.  Provides links to bibliographies of recommended titles about African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans.

Literature Awards

Coretta Scott King Award - Presented annually to authors and illustrators of African descent whose distinguished books promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream."  Site lists all past and current award winning titles.

National Jewish Book Award - Provides annotations of award winning and finalist titles.

Pura Belpre Award - Presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. Site lists award winning books.

Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award.  Lists award winning titles by year.

Periodical Indexes

EBSCOhost databases: ERIC, an index to educational databases and Academic Search Premier, an index to scholarly journals, popular magazines, and selected newspapers.

Educator's Reference Desk (ERIC)  Unrestricted Web version of ERIC, the index to journal articles and research reports in education. Content covers 1966 - January 2004. You might start with a search for the subject descriptors: multicultural-education and children's-literature

To focus the search, you might combine other descriptors with your results:

Educator's Reference Desk  also has a searchable archive of Lesson Plans!

MLA Bibliography. Authoritative index to scholarly research on English, American, and world Literature, languages, and linguistics. 

InfoTrac Academic OneFile. Excellent general index that includes full-text articles for selected journal titles. 

NoveList. Helps readers find interesting new books by genre, author, or subject.

General Multicultural Resources

CyberSpace Reference Library: Multicultural Resources - Excellent collection of general links to country and cultural resources. University of California at Dominguez Hills, University Library.

Diversity Calendar - Multnomah County Library, Oregon. Calendar of "people, dates, festivals, holy days, and anniversaries that are important, yet may not be widely known or noticed in the United States."

Diversity Web -  Comprehensive compendium of campus practices and resources in higher education.

History/Social Studies Web for K-12 Teachers.  Helps teaches locate and use resources of the Web in the classroom. Click the "Diversity" link for listing of many different cultural sites.

Multicultural Calendar - Part of the KidLink site. Calendar of holidays covers over 300 events in over 50 countries.

Multicultural Pavilion - Paul Gorski, University of Maryland. Resources and Dialogues for educators, students, and activists. Be  sure to see the Multicultural Sites and Resources page for Web resources, some on literature.

Resources for Diversity - A personal Web site, but a fine collection of maintained links by a former professor of psychology, Rob Kabacoff.

University of Maryland Diversity Database - Comprehensive and searchable.

Y? The National Forum On People's Differences - Provides "a way to ask people from other ethnic or cultural backgrounds the questions you've always been too embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask them."

Government Information

U.S. Office of Education. A large, user-friendly, searchable site with links to government programs, publications, statistics, and useful information. From this site you can visit: The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and Student Diversity, part of the Studies of Education Reform site.

North Carolina Public Schools InfoWeb. Nicely organized site with a multitude of resources.

This page originally created for the Conference on Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults, held at UNCA, July 21, 2000. Updated 14 September 2004.

Top of document | Other Research Guides

Ramsey Library  UNCA