Links - Resources and Organizations
This is a collection of websites that TTLG has found interesting and/or useful. Because sites change so fast we cannot vouch for their content. If you have any comments or suggestions about this list please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be adding to these lists regularly so please keep checking this page for new doorways into the world of children's literature.
•About-arts.com - Arts Directory (USA)
This is a site listing literature resources of all kinds and it provides a directory of literature related websites and discussion groups.
•Book Links (USA)
The web site for the print journal published by the American Library Association. The journal has been in print for 25 years and is an excellent resource for teachers and librarians.
•Book Spot (USA)
A good resource for finding book related content on the web.
•Bookwire - The Book Industry Resource (USA)
With over 8,500 links in, and ranked in the top 100,000 most visited websites listed in Alexa; BookWire is the most comprehensive online portal into the book industry. Our mission is to provide librarians, publishers, booksellers, authors, and general book enthusiasts with the resources they need. Our users benefit from access to various tools and services.
•Booktrust (UK)
Founded in 1926, Booktrust (then named the National Book League) is based in Book House, Wandsworth, South London. As an independent educational charity working to bring books and people together, Booktrust provides information via our two websites, premium rate information helpline, administers book prizes and projects, and produces publications and resource materials. The Children's Literature Resource Centre holds the vast majority of children's books published in the UK. These books are housed at Book House for up to a period of two years. The Literature Resource Centre also contains a more general collection of books and guides about children's books (including biographical information on their writers and illustrators), information on the history of children's literature, as well as a selection of magazines and journals on children's literature. This material forms part of our permanent collection and is widely used by students, teachers, researchers and the general public. www.booktrusted.com is a website dedicated to children's books and resources for professionals working with young readers. Visit the site for annotated book lists, information about organisations concerned with children's books, publishers, children's books news and much more
•The Books For Kids Foundation (USA)
The Books For Kids Foundation is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy among all the children with special emphasis on disadvantaged children and youth. Books for Kids donates books, creates libraries and participates in reading initiatives within community-based organizations social service agencies, schools and under-served institutions. Since its founding in 1986, Books for Kids has provided children with more than 5 million books with a retail value of $42.5 million, built 37 libraries and distributed reading materials through approximately 250 agencies in the New York Area and throughout the Untied States
•Book Aid International (UK)
Book Aid International works in 30 of the world's poorest countries, providing over half a million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and schools.
Books are the basic tools of literacy and education yet millions of children and adults across the developing world do not have access to them.
Books can make a real difference to people's lives. Farmers, nurses, mechanics, development workers and teachers all need books and information to support their work. Children and students must be encouraged to use books to develop their education and lifelong learning.
The majority of our support goes to rural and urban libraries which are free and accessible to everyone. Book Aid International works with library partners to develop their pivotal role in the community.
For the longer term Book Aid International is supporting the growth of local publishing and bookselling so that affordable books can be produced which reflect the local languages and culture.
•The Books For Kids Foundation (USA)
The Books For Kids Foundation is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy among all the children with special emphasis on disadvantaged children and youth. Books for Kids donates books, creates libraries and participates in reading initiatives within community-based organizations social service agencies, schools and under-served institutions. Since its founding in 1986, Books for Kids has provided children with more than 5 million books with a retail value of $42.5 million, built 37 libraries and distributed reading materials through approximately 250 agencies in the New York Area and throughout the Untied States.
•The Beatrix Potter Society (USA)
The Beatrix Potter Society is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and exists to promote the study and appreciation of the life and works of Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) who was not only the author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other classics of children's literature, but also a landscape and natural history artist, diarist, farmer and conservationist - in the latter capacity she was responsible for the preservation of large areas of the Lake District through her gifts to the National Trust.
The BOOK IT! Program (USA)
Started in 1985 as a way to motivate kids to read more, the BOOK IT! Program has become the largest reading motivation program in America. Believing that the motivation to read increases when children receive encouragement is what brought BOOK IT! to the classroom. Teachers believing the same thing is what has kept it there.
•The Children's Literature Web Guide (USA)
The best resource site about children's literature that I have found on the web. It has information and links that cover every aspect of the children's literature field. An excellent site.
•Children's Book Council (USA)
The non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children's books. An excellent site and resource.
•Children's Book Central (USA)
This is a wonderful site which describes itself as "A PLACE TO START: for the writers, readers, collectors, illustrators, librarians, teachers, parents, publishers, printers, storytellers and kids." It is a diverse and highly useful directory of children's book-related sites on the Internet with information that will interest anyone who has a fondness for children's literature.
•The Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers (Canada)
The Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers (CANSCAIP) is a group of professionals in the field of children's culture with members from all parts of Canada. For over twenty years, CANSCAIP has been instrumental in the support and promotion of children's literature through newsletters, workshops, meetings and other information programs for authors, parents, teachers, librarians, publishers, and others. CANSCAIP also has some 900 friends – teachers, librarians, parents and others – who are also interested in aspects of children's books, illustrations and performances.
F
•First Book
First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books. Since its inception, First Book has provided nearly 30 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide.
In the years since First Book's founding, educators and policymakers have become acutely aware of the need to develop strong community-based resource programs for low-income children, which is precisely the focus of First Book at the local level. One recent report funded by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations found that the average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading before entering school. The study found that the average child growing up in a low-income family, however, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading during this same time period.
At the local level, First Book leverages the strength of its entrepreneurial Advisory Board model to spark social change. By providing community-based literacy programs with an ongoing supply of new books, First Book plays a critical role in enhancing the quality of preschool and after-school programs nationwide. A literacy program in St. Louis serving 50 low-income children, for example, could receive 50 books each month for a year from First Book-St. Louis. The books would be chosen by program leaders working directly with the children, incorporated into program lessons, and given to the children to take home and keep.
All books distributed by First Book are provided at no cost to the child or program. With the support of First Book, these programs are able-often for the first time-to develop a curriculum around the books they select, share these books with participating children, and enable these children to share the magic of their new books with siblings and other family members at home.
In this and other ways, First Book supports the wonderful work of local heroes running already existing community programs, arms these programs with the critical resource of new books, and helps them to become full partners with the school systems and the children and families they serve.
•The Internet Public Library (USA)
The IPL is the first public library of and for the Internet community. It is also an experiment, trying to discover and promote the most effective roles and contributions of librarians to the Internet and vice versa.
•IBBY (International)
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.
•Literary Leaps (USA)
Literary Leaps brings you one of the web's most comprehensive collections of publishing and book-related sites. Browse its aisles containing thousands of useful resources.
•National Literacy Trust (UK)
The National Literacy Trust, founded in 1993, is an independent charity dedicated to building a literate nation. The importance of literacy has long been recognised: it underpins all educational achievement and is central to economic advance; it helps develop human potential and raises self-esteem. We are the only organisation concerned with raising literacy standards for all age groups throughout the UK.
The National Literacy Trust's purpose is to make an independent, strategic and practical contribution to the creation of a society in which all can enjoy the skills, confidence and pleasures of literacy to support their educational, economic, social and cultural goals.
Building a literate nation will take much more than just focusing on improving the education system. Everyone concerned needs to consider the broad picture and see how the home and social circumstances help lay the foundations for successful learning. We all need to work together to create the national culture in which education can thrive.
•The National Center for Family Literacy (USA)
The mission of the National Center for Family Literacy is to create educational and economic opportunity for the most at-risk children and parents.
NCFL's services include professional development for practitioners who work in children's education, adult education, English as a Second Language, and related literacy fields; model program development through our many ground-breaking initiatives; policy and advocacy support to sustain and expand literacy services for families; and the Family Literacy Alliance, a membership program. NCFL relies on the generous partnerships of many individuals, corporations and foundations to accomplish our mission.
NCFL envisions a world where every child in every community receives the literacy support he or she needs from responsible, caring adults in order to succeed in school and in life.
•The National Library Service Talking Books Program (USA)
The National Library Service Talking Books Program helps people of all ages whose low vision, blindness or physical handicap makes reading a standard printed page difficult and has helped participants in the program read seven times more than the average reader, or approximately 35 books a year!
The Talking Books program can be equated to a program similar to the online video renting service, Netflix, except at no cost to the patron. Through NLS’ national network of cooperating libraries, books and magazines on cassettes and in braille, as well as audio equipment, are mailed straight to people’s door, free of charge. Patrons can then keep their orders for as long as necessary and can order as many as they wish. This service offers a much needed way for millions of Americans stay connected, and allows them to continue to read, learn and enhance the quality of their lives.
Talking Books is a free library service available to eligible individuals of any age whose low vision, blindness, or physical handicap makes reading a standard printed page difficult. Through its national network of cooperating libraries, NLS mails books and magazines on cassette and in braille, as well as audio equipment, directly to enrollees at no cost. Established by an act of Congress in 1931, the talking-books program was created to serve blind adults. It was expanded in 1952 to include children, in 1962 to provide music materials, and again in 1966 to include individuals with physical disabilities that prevent the reading of standard print.
For children, there are wonderful Talking Books programs in local libraries all over the country
•SCBWI (International)
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, formed in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles based writers for children, is the only international organization to offer a variety of services to people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children’s literature. The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. There are currently more than 19,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world.
The benefits of membership in SCBWI are many. The SCBWI sponsors two annual International Conferences on Writing and Illustrating for Children as well as dozens of regional conferences and events throughout the world. It also publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, awards, grants for works in progress, and provides many informational publications on the art and business of writing and selling written, illustrated, and electronic material. The SCBWI also presents the annual Golden Kite Award for the best fiction and non-fiction books.
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