Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media
The world-famous MA, run by CIRCL, is the oldest accredited degree in the field in Britain, and is taught by specialists in Children’s Literature, whose research is published internationally.
Other Interesting Sites
There are three sections of links to interesting sites below, as follows:
- Links to Course Texts on the Web
- Academic Children’s Literature Studies Sites
- (Literary) Theory Sites
Links to Course Texts on the Web
This section contains links to course texts available on the Web.
Search the huge Project Gutenberg site with out-of-copyright texts (including — mostly nineteenth century — children’s literature).
Children’s Literature Center of the American Library of Congress’s digitized children’s literature texts
Maxwell Library of Bridgewater State University Digitized Collections of Children’s and Young Adult Literature.
Children’s Literature Association Scholarly Resources (you need to search their links in turn to various resources for both children’s literature texts and criticism).
Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
For a list of past MA dissertations from the CIRCL MA in Children’s Literature please see our MA Dissertations page.
Academic Children’s Literature Studies Sites
There are thousands of sites on the web to do with children’s literature. The vast majority, however, are not concerned with academic work or research but with sites for parents, librarians, or other interested groups.
The sites mentioned below have been stringently selected to be of relevance to academic work and research.
If you wish to find the other types of site then links on the other sites will take you there. Otherwise just search the web as you would in general.
General Sites
International Research Society Children’s Literature (IRSCL)
Children’s Literature Association Scholarly Resources (you need to search their links in turn to various resources for both children’s literature texts and criticism).
Oxford Children’s Literature and Youth Culture Colloquium (jointly run by Oxford University and University of California, Berkeley, USA)
The International Children’s Digital Library
National Graduate Centre for Language and Literacy, University of Reading.
The UK Children and Media Network Home Page.
The Roehampton Institute National Graduate Centre for Research in Children’s Literature Web-Site.
Children’s Literature Center of the American Library of Congress
Wayne State University, Purdy/Kresge Library, Children’s Literature Resource Guide
Jim May’s Eighteenth Century Children’s Literature Bibliography site
Professor Ruth Bottigheimer’s Bibliography of British Books for Children & Adolescents 1470-1770
International Graduate Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, Literacy and Creativity at the University of Worcester, UK.
Research Collections at the University of Worcester
Sussex Graduate Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester.
The University of Pittsburgh’s ‘Representing Childhood’ project
Sites from Other Countries and Areas
The Web-Site of the French ‘Graduate Centre International d’Etudes en Litterature de Jeunesse’
Dutch Royal Library Children’s Book resources
(available also in English if you click on ‘English homepage‘)
‘Bookchat site’ on South African Children’s Literature
(in English; including access to the SACBIP database (South African Children’s Books in Print); mostly in English and isiXhosa).
Puku: South African Book Project
Greek Children’s Literature Web-site (in English)
Children’s Literature Studies in Italy (partly in English, partly in Italian)
Shiras University Graduate Centre for Children’s Literature Studies (SUCCLS) in Iran
University of Frankfurt Institute for Children’s Literature Studies (in German)
(Literary) Theory Sites
Many students ask for further resources for the Theory course of the MA in Children’s Literature. Here are some of the largest and best web-sites on literary theory:
Voice of the Shuttle. Web Page for Humanities Research. (look under: ‘literary theory’ if you get lost in this vast site!)
Resources for Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
Eclat: The ‘Essential’ Comparative Literature and Theory Site