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	Copyright by Lisa R. Bartle 1997-2008

Age of Reader:

Age of reader, or expected reader, is a way to limit out books that might be beyond the readers' reading level or emotional level.

• Books labeled in Baby/Toddler have very simple language, often very few works, and are designed to introduce children to books.  The age for these runs up to about the 2nd birthday, though some favorites may last much longer. These books are all picture books. 

• Books labeled in Preschool range have fairly simple language, and are designed to introduce children to books.  They are not for the child to read, but for the care-giver and child to share.  These books are all picture books. Counting books, color books, and alphabet books are set for this age range. The age for these are about 2-4 years old.

• Books labeled in the 5-8 range can vary considerably, as this is the age most children develop their rudimentary reading skills.  This is also a very popular age for reading to children to encourage them to read.  Some of these books can be read by children who are good readers, but many of them are meant to be read to children.   While the majority of these books are picture books, all the easy readers are set for this age range.

• Books labeled in the 8-10 range are for solo readers.  While not all of the material will be easy, these can be read by many children with little adult assistance, but make great read-aloud sharing.  These books are both simpler chapter books and advanced picture books.

• Books labeled in the 10-12 range are more advanced versions of the 8-10 books.  They are often longer, with more complex ideas and vocabulary.  These books are mostly chapter books, but  a few are picture books.

• Books labeled in the 12+ range and the 14+ range are for nearly adult or adult readers.  These books are for young adults and often deal with emotions and  ideas that are mature, even when the vocabulary or writing style is simple. These books are almost entirely chapter books.  Almost all of the realistic fiction novels, also called contemporary problem novels, are set for this age.

These divisions are not meant to be written in stone.  An advanced child may read out of their age level, or a more reluctant reader may need a lower age book to encourage further reading.  All of these books are emotionally and literarily fulfilling, and ought to be read regardless of these categories, which are meant only as a guide.

Format:

The books are divided into four formats: Picture Books (Picture), Chapter Books (Chapter), Easy Readers (Easy Reader), and Stories without Words (Picture w/o words).  Picture books does not necessarily mean the book is meant for young children; there are quite a few picture books that I wouldn't give to a child less than ten years old, such as Hiroshima No Pika.

• Picture book (Picture) means that the art is as integral, if not more so, to the "reading" experience as the words.

• Chapter books (Chapter) are usually novels, but can be long stories, where pictures are fewer in number and seem to be an addition to the text, but not essential to it.

• Beginning Readers, (Easy Reader), are those books, like Frog and Toad are Friends, which combine careful vocabulary choices for beginning readers, with a large, pleasant font, and pictures.

• Stories without Words (Picture w/o words) are picture books where there are no, or very few,  words.  These books will appear on a picture book search as well.

• Occasionally, a book will be labelled with (Chapter Picture), which means that I couldn't decide into which category the book fell, so it has both. These are often science books, where the illustrations are a very important part of the content, while the chapter format can remain intact.

Setting:

There is a bias toward the United States because most of these books were published originally in the U.S. by American authors.  If you want a specific state or country, such as Florida or Turkey, then use the keyword search.

• Some countries, such as China, England, France, and Japan appear separately because a large number of stories are set in these locations.

• United States are books which specifically state they are set in the U.S.   There are many books which may be set there, but unless it it clear it is not assumed to be set there.  By mixing the ethnicity and location menus, different US ethnicities and nationalities may be found.

• Outside the United States is provided for an easy limit to all books not set in the United States.

• Africa includes all countries on the African continent except Egypt, which is set for Mid-East.

• Mexico/S. America includes Middle America and the Caribbean well.

Genre:

There are a number of genres represented in the database, but the most frequent is one form of fiction or another.  Fiction is therefore divided into several sub-grouping. Below is a description of each genre grouping:

Alphabet	Meant for young children to learn the alphabet.
Animal tale	Any story where animals, plants, or inanimate objects play a large part, and behave anthropomorphically.
Art	How to make art or instructional material about art.
Biography	Biographies of historical figures.
Colors	Meant for young children to learn colors.
Counting	Meant for young children to learn numbers and counting.
Cumulative	For stories that build on themselves and repeat (Such as "The House that Jack Built").
Fantasy	A kind of fiction with fantastic settings, characters, and events.
Fiction	The largest group.  Incorporates the many kinds of fiction in the database including mystery, fantasy, historical fiction, realistic fiction, science fiction, and general fiction.
Folktale	Anything that is mythical or  legendary or is a fairy tale falls into this genre.  Folktales may not be given a location, but are usually given the source ethnicity or nationality.  If only fairy tales are desired, use the keyword search.
Historical Fiction	Fiction set in a particular period, whose events and characters reflect that period, but may be only loosely related to historical events.
History	Reflecting what is considered history, dealing with historical events, people, or objects.
How-To	Books that instruct how to perform a specific task such as sign language or gardening.
Mathematics	More advanced than counting books, these try to make numbers and mathematics enjoyable.
Music	Books containing lyrics and music to songs.
Mystery/Thriller	A kind of fiction. Consists of books that deal with supernatural phenomena, as well as books revolving around "whodunit."  Use the keyword search for more specific searches.
Poetry	Poetry may be rhyming or not, and may include mother goose or blank verse by great poets. For more specific needs, use the keyword search.
Realistic Fiction	A gritty fiction dealing with serious issues for the older reader.   Examples include The Great Gilly Hopkins or What Jamie Saw.
Science	Books that cover the various life and physical sciences, such biology, physiology, physics, chemistry, and more. Combine with a keyword search on the specific science for a more exact search.
Science Fiction	Like fantasy in that they usually occur in incredible places, but they offer some kind of a pseudo-scientific explanation for the events.  Often occurs in the future.
Social Studies	Realistic, non-fiction meant to educate children about other cultures, people, and themselves.
Theatre	Plays. There are currently only two items in this catagory from the represented awards.

Historical Period:

Used for historical fiction and biographies, the divisions have a Eurocentric bias, as well as a bias toward United States history.  The divisions are meant to be guides for a broad area of time.  Some areas dealt with frequently deserved their own sub-division, such as Civil War being distinct from 19th-century.   The divisions are:

Prehistoric	Covering times before civilization.
Ancient	Covering from about 3000 BCE - 500 CE.*
Medieval	Covering about 500 CE - 1500 CE.
Renaissance	Covering about 1500 CE - 1700 CE.
17th Century	Covering from 1600-1699 CE.
Revolutionary	Covering the American Revolutionary War.
18th-century	Covering history from 1700 CE to 1799 CE including the American Revolution War.
American Civil War	Covering the American Civil War (1861-1865).
19th-century	Covering history from 1800 CE to 1890 CE including the American Civil War.
Turn of the Century	Covering about 1890 CE to 1914 CE
World War I	Covering about 1914 CE to 1929 CE, but most are directly related to the First World War.
1920's	Covering about 1920 CE to 1929 CE, not usually related to World War I.
Depression	Covering 1930 CE to 1945 CE, especially the great economic Depression world-wide.
World War II	Covering about 1942 CE to 1950 CE, but may go back earlier because the Second World War started earlier in European countries.
1950's	Covering about 1950 CE to 1959 CE.
1960's	Covering about 1960 CE to 1969 CE.
Contemporary	Most useful for fiction. Usually covering about 1950 to present when the material seems to be contemporary or timeless when read, and does not have any specific years mentioned, or is about issues still current.  More specific times can be searched using the keyword search and the time period (1970s or 1980s).
20th Century	Covering about 1900 CE to 1999 CE. Most useful for non-fiction books, such as biographies or histories.
Future	By definition these are almost always science fiction, usually utopias or dystopias.
*BCE means Before the Common Era; CE means the Common Era.       Used as substitute for BC and AD.

Multi-Cultural:

Including only those materials that show two cultures interacting, whether that interaction is positive or negative.  Yo Yes is one example, as is The Oxboy.  Because the database is so specific, other types of multi-culturalism may be accessed by search for books set outside of the U.S., or using a specific nationality or ethnicity for the protagonist.

Ethnicity/Nationality of the Protagonist or Lore :

Biased in favor of those ethnicities found frequently in the United States.  If a more specific ethnicity is desired, use the keyword search. Lore is given an ethnicity/nationality as is the protagonist.  Ethnicity/Nationality is also used to reflect the country of origin for folk tales.

African	Set in Africa with African protagonist.
African-American	Separate from African because of overwhelming numbers.
Australian	Australian includes both Aboriginal Australians as well as Australians of European or other decent.  Do a keyword search for only Aborigines.
Canadian	Separate because of great numbers. Usually Canadian award-winning books are set in Canada about Canadians.
Chinese	Separate because of great numbers.  Find Chinese-Americans by setting ethnicity to Chinese and location to United States.
Danish	Separate because of numbers.
East Asian	A group search for people from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolian, Tibet, and Cambodia. Combine with a keyword search to be specific.
East Indian	Means people from India rather than Native Americans in North or South America.
English	Separate because of numbers.
French	Separate because of numbers.
German	Separate because of numbers.
Greek	Separate because of numbers.
Hispanic	Covering protagonists living in the United States, Mexico, Middle America, and South America. To find Hispanic-Americans, set the location to United States.
Irish	Separate because of numbers.
Italian	Separate because of numbers.
Japanese	Separate because of numbers.  Find Japanese-Americans by setting ethnicity to Japanese and location to United States.
Jewish	Separate because of numbers.
Korean	Separate because of numbers.
Mid-Eastern	Separate because of numbers.
Native American	Covers all natives of the Western Hemisphere, whether North or South America.  Combine with a keyword for more specific tribes such as Sioux or Maya.
New Zealand	For New Zealanders from the old world or native Maori. Combine with keyword search to be specific.
Polish	Separate because of numbers.
Russian	Separate because of numbers.
Scottish	Separate because of numbers.
Welsh	Separate because of numbers.
Other	Includes all ethnicities or nationalities not included in the above, such as Albanian, Austrian, Bulgarian, Haitian, Jamaican, Cornish, Danish, Dutch, Hungarian, Norwegian, Scottish, Spanish, Swedish, and Welsh. Do a keyword search at access specific ethnicities or nationalities.

Gender:

Used to select the gender of the protagonist, without regard to the genre of the book.  Protagonist means the main character in fiction as well as non-fiction, such as biographies.

Languages Other Than English:

All of these books were written or translated into English. But sometimes books include a significant number of words from other languages in an effort to enhance the representation of the culture, to promote understanding of other languages and cultures, or to provide a comfort level for non-native speakers. Most often these books are in Spanish, but other languages sometimes appear.  The number of books of that language in the database appears in parentheses in the Language pull-down menu.

Publication Year:

May be used to limit the books to a year or span of years.

• There must be years in these two fields or an error will result.
• The default years should be left in place if the user wishes to search the entire database. However, the user may change the years in the box for a more narrow search.
• For a single year, type the same year in both the boxes, for example 1994 to 1994.

• For a span of years, type the beginning year and the ending year,  for example, 1994 to 1996.  This will list only books first published in the United States in 1994, 1995, and 1996.
• Remember that the publication year does not reflect the year the book won an award.

Keyword:

The Keyword search is for when highly specialized books are needed, such as books on Christmas or death. Words are automatically searched as a phrase. No Boolean ANDs or ORs will function in this field (Yet!). When searching, try to pluralize the nouns you are using:    search dogs rather than dog.

The keyword search can be used to find:

1. More specific locations not found in the setting drop-down menu, such as U.S. state names, U.S. regions, or countries. To find U.S. regions, use the following codes in the keyword search:

   New England (USE): Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
   Northeast (USNE): Above and New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia
   Great Plains (USGP): Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota
   Midwest (USM): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin
   Northwest (USNW): Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming
   Southwest (USSW): Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah
   Pacific (USP): Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington
   South (USSo): Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
   Southeast (USSE): Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

2. More specific ethnicities or nationalities not found in the drop-down menu, such as Aborigines

3. Key phrase in the title of a book to find out what awards it has won
4. Themes or subject matter of target stories
5. More specific subject areas in science, such as biology or physics

Author/Illustrator/Translator:

The author/illustrator/translator search feature offers a way to search for the people who created/shaped the book. This will search these three fields. The best way to search is to use either the first name or the last name. As DAWCL is a small database, that should yield good results. You may try, however, to type in the last name with a comma then a space and the first name.

Awards:

The awards given are the sources for the books in the database.  As time goes by, I hope to add more sources that recognize quality children's books. To search the entire database leave the pull-down menu to "Search All Awards." Selecting a specific award will limit the search to that award only. To obtain a list of books which have won an award select the award and sort by publication year.  You may want to find out more about these awards.

In the results page(s), abbreviations are given to each of the awards.   The abbreviations are as follows:

 

1.	ABBY		American Booksellers Book of the Year Award
2.	ACBA		Australia Children's Book of the Year Award (Three categories in one.)
3.	AFHG		Amelia Frances Howard Gibbon Illustrator Award
4.	AIP		American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award - Children
5.	ALAN		ALA Notable Books for Children
6.	AmBA		Americas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature
7.	BBYA		Best Books for Young Adults (American Library Association)
8.	BELA		Notable Books of the English Language Arts
9.	BGHBA		Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
10.	BGHBH		Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors
11.	Bisto		Bisto Book of the Year
12.	BSBY		Book Sensense Book of the Year Award
13.	CarM		Carnegie Medal
14.	CGWA		Carter G. Woodson Award
15.	CGWH		Carter G. Woodson Honor
16.	CLABYA		Canada Library Association Young Adult Canadian Book Award
17.	CLABYC		Canada Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children
18.	CM		Caldecott Medal
19.	CH		Caldecott Honor
20.	ChrisA		Christopher Award
21.	CSKA		Coretta Scott King Award
22.	CSKH		Coretta Scott King Honor
23.	Costa		Costa Book Award
24.	CZA		Charlotte Zolotow Award
25.	CZH		Charlotte Zolotow Honor
26.	EAPJA		Edgar Allan Poe Juvenile Award
27.	EAPYA		Edgar Allan Poe Young Adult Award
28.	EGA		Esther Glen Award
29.	EPA		Eva Pownall Award
30.	EPH		Eva Pownall Honor
31.	ETA		Ethel Turner Award
32.	GBA		Giverny Book Award
33.	GuardA		Guardian Award for Children's Fiction
34.	GG		Governor General's Literary Award
35.	GKA		Golden Kite Award
36.	GKH		Golden Kite Honor
37.	GryA		Gryphon Award
38.	GryH		Gryphon Honor
39.	HBF		Horn Book Fanfare
40.	JABA		Jane Addams Book Award
41.	JABH		Jane Addams Book Honor
42.	JBA		John and Patricia Beatty Award
43.	KGM		Kate Greenaway Medal
44.	KMA		Kurt Maschler Award
45.	MFA		Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
46.	MLBA		Mildred L. Batchelder Award
47.	MLBH		Mildred L. Batchelder Honor
48.	MLPA		Michael L. Printz Award
49.	MLPH		Michael L. Printz Honor
50.	NBA		National Book Award for Young People's Literature
51.	NBH		National Book Honor Award for Young People's Literature
52.	NM		Newbery Medalist
53.	NH		Newbery Honor
54.	NSSTB		Notable Social Studies Trade Books
55.	NYTBI		New York Times Best Illustrated
56.	OPA		Orbis Pictus Award
57.	OPH		Orbis Pictus Honor
58.	OSTB		Outstanding Science Trade Book Award
59.	PBA		Pura Belpre Award
60.	PBH		Pura Belpre Honor
61.	PhA		Phoenix Award
62.	PhH		Phoenix Honor
63.	PWP		Patricia Wrightson Prize
64.	RCA		Russell Clark Award
65.	RSA		Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award
66.	SIBA		Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
67.	SIBH		Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor
68.	SmA		Smarties Award
69.	SFHA		Sid Fleischman Humor Award
70.	SODA		Scott O'Dell Award
71.	SSLI		Society of School Librarians International
72.	STA		Sydney Taylor Award
73.	TBYA		Ten Best Books for Young Adults
74.	TSGA		Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
75.	TSGH		Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor
76.	TRA		Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award
77.	WAWA		William Allen White Award
78.	WCBY		Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award

Point of View:

I have recently (2007) become interested in point of view as an indexed field in the database. As I consider it and think about the work of going back to previously read and indexed books to get that piece of information, I'm drawing up a plan for what I might put in that field. "Whose thoughts does the narrator know?"

1st person
1st person diary -- (all text is journal entries)
1st person epistolary -- (all text is letters from the same character)
1st person poetic -- (all text is poetry)
1st person plural -- (all text uses the "we" rather than "I")
1st person protagonist -- (Use of I is limited to the protagonist)
1st person ancillary -- (Use of I is limited to a secondary character in the story.)
1st person external -- (Use of I is limited to a voice that doesn't appear in the story.)
1st person streaming consciousness
2nd person -- (Use of "you" rather than I, he or she.)
3rd person omniscent -- (Narrator knows what all characters think and feel.)
3rd person limited objective -- (Narrator focuses on one character, but dooesn't know its thoughts or feelings).
3rd person limited subjective -- (Narrator knows what one character thinks and feels.)
3rd person external -- (Narrator conveyes a narrative voice that expresses opinions about the action. May be ancillary or external.)
3rd person objective -- (Narrator is neutral and doesn't know what any character thinks or feels, but describes all like a camera.)
Multiple epistolary -- (all text is letters from various characters)
Multiple documentary -- (all text is from multiple sources and various characters)

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
http://www.dawcl.com