Aboriginal Children's Literature

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Analysis
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Citing Sources

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Aboriginal Children's and Young Adult Literature and Resources

This research guide provides an introduction to finding children's and young adult materials and resources with Indigenous perspectives. For additional help with your research, please contact a X̱wi7x̱wa librarian or visit the reference desk at the X̱wi7x̱wa Library.

See also the related UBC Library research guides for further resources:

Children's Literature and Children's Literature Websites.

Librarians

UBC Vancouver Kim Lawson (X̱wi7x̱wa Library)

UBC Vancouver Sarah Dupont (X̱wi7x̱wa Library)

The X̱wi7x̱wa Library classification system in practice.

Photo by Holly Tomren.

Books & Media

How to Find Children's Books with Aboriginal Content

Search the UBC Library Catalogue:

Try Subject Headings

Browse Subject (begins with):

Try Keywords

First Nations AND "children's books"
Aboriginal AND "children's books"
Native AND "children's books"
Indigenous AND "children's books"
Indian AND "children's books"

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Example: "first nations", "juvenile literature"
Use a question mark to truncate a term, i.e. search words with the same stem.
Example: aborig? searches aboriginal, aboriginals, aboriginality, etc

Videos & DVDs

UBC Library Catalogue search:
Enter topic keyword AND video?
Examples: raven AND video?
"wapos bay" AND video?

Summon search:
Enter keyword(s)
Example: "first nations" AND raven
Select Content Type:
Video Recording

ELN Media File
(BIG media database)
Select ELN Media Cat
Enter keywords
Example: "wapos bay"

Book ELN & UBC Media through UBC Media Bookings

To book Xwi7xwa Media
Contact: Linda Allen
linda.allen@ubc.ca
604-827-5013

Further Resources

Aboriginal Filmmaking (UBC Research Guide)

NFB Aboriginal Perspectives

NFB Aboriginal Peoples (special section on youth)

Articles

Indexes to search for articles on Children's Literature:

Book Reviews

Finding reviews of children's and young adult books.

Click in the box below to search Summon for book reviews available through UBC Library:

Enter the title of the book (quotation marks around a phrase) and the author's last name plus review* (the * truncates a word so it will look for review, reviews, reviewed, etc.) into the search box. For example, try typing "monkey beach" robinson review* to find book reviews of Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson.

You may also consult specific reviewing journals such as:

Booklist
Book Review Index Plus
Citations to more than five million book reviews, drawn from a core of about 700 magazines and journals (including both popular and scholarly titles.
Children’s Book Review Index
Children's literature review
CM: Canadian Review of Materials
Book reviews, children book reviews, media reviews, children book news, and children author profiles.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Horn Book Magazine
School Library Journal

Theses

cIRcle: UBC's Institutional Repository
Full text UBC theses and dissertations (Fall 2007 to present). A project is underway to digitize older UBC theses. Currently, theses and dissertations from 1974 to 1987, and 1992 to 2006, are available. Search for subjects using keywords: Aboriginal, Indigenous, First Nations.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
An international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Collection includes over 1 million ETDs.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Predominantly doctoral dissertations from North American universities (1997 to 2007). There is some international coverage and pre-1997 titles. Search terms: First Nations, Aboriginal, indigenous, Native American.
Theses Canada Portal (Library and Archives Canada)
Approximately 310,000 theses and dissertations from Library and Archives Canada (1965 to present). Fulltext available for about 90,000. Search terms: First Nations, Aboriginal, indigenous, Native American.

Analysis

Evaluating Children's Materials

American Indians Children's Literature BLOG (authored by Debbie Reese)
Native American Youth Services Literature Award Review criteria from the American Indian Library Association [Microsoft Word document]
Oyate Criteria for Evaluating Books (Oyate)
"I" is Not for Indian American Indian Library Association
Getting Out of the Cupboard: A selected annotated bibliography of works regarding The Indian in the Cupboard Prepared for Xwi7xwa Library
Fakelore, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's Literature (Michigan State University)

UBC Library resources

Broken Flute : The Native Experience in Books for Children
Native American Picture Books of Change : The Art of Historic Children's Editions
American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography
How to Teach About American Indians: A Guide for The School Library Media Specialist
How to Tell the Difference: A Checklist for Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias
Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia
Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children

Further Resources

Selected bibliographies

Manitoba Kindergarten to Grade 4 Aboriginal Languages and Cultures: Bibliography of Recommended Picture Books/Novels with Suggested Uses: A Reference for Selecting Learning Resources (Government of Manitoba)
Teacher and Librarian Resources for Children's and YA Books with Native Themes
First Nations, First Peoples (Vancouver Public Library) Annotated bibliography of First Nations materials for children and young adults, resources for parents and educators, and videos.
Native American Children's Literature in the Classroom: an Annotated Bibliography (Humboldt State University Library)
American Indian Children's and Young Adult's Literature (University Libraries, University of Washington)
Oyate A descriptive catalogue from a Native American publisher committed to seeing "that our lives and histories are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us".
A Critical Bibliography on North American Indians, for K-12 (Anthropology Outreach Office of the Smithsonian Institution)

Recommended titles from the American Indians in Children's Literature blog

Debbie Reese, author of the American Indians in Children's Literature blog, has come up with a list of her suggested top ten titles for three different age groups: Elementary, Middle School, and High School. Take a look at her recommendations here - there's also a link to download a pdf copy of the list. And many of these titles are available at X̱wi7x̱wa!

Other libraries:

Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is also worth checking if you can't find the materials you need in the UBC library (or just want to borrow something more non-academic!). You can find details of how to get a VPL borrower card here and search their online catalogue here.

Photo courtesy of Richard Eriksson.

Citing Sources

Wondering how to cite your sources?

RefWorks is a web-based citation management program that enables you to:

download, gather, and store references from databases and library catalogues automatically
format citations and bibliographies in seconds
connect to your RefWorks account anywhere there's web access
share your citations with other RefWorks users

Video Tutorials

How to set up RefWorks account (1 min. video)
Direct Import from an Online Database Service (3:19 min. video)
Creating a Custom Output Style List (4:25 min. video)
Quick Bibliography (3:44 min. video)

more RefWorks video tutorials here….

Last Modified 2:38 pm, Dec 28 2011

The University of British Columbia

Aboriginal Children's Literature