Citation
Oliver, L. (2002), "Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 284-284. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.4.284.10
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade 12 is an excellent educational resource, useful for teachers, librarians and students. Described as “a collection of outstanding literature for children and adolescents”, the site is co‐ordinated by the California Department of Education. It provides lists of age‐appropriate reading material from all genres, including drama, historical fiction, poetry, short stories and more.
The site is well designed and easy to navigate. Instructions are clear, and users can search for literature by grade level, language, genre, author/title, culture and awards. The database allows combination searches to be performed: users can combine any of the previously listed categories to find appropriate materials, such as a particular genre for a specific age group. Each entry is annotated, and curriculum connections are listed; these include English, history/social science, mathematics, science and others. Teachers are certain to appreciate these features, although some lists are more comprehensive than others (the English/language arts connection produces far more results than, for example, physical fitness).
It should be noted that the culture section includes only materials on American ethnic minority groups. Users need to set this section to “all cultures” if this (minority culture as a theme) is not required. A list of the 19 cultures is available on the main page under cultural designations and repeats the same definition for all ethnic groups, with only the country names changed. We are told that “Middle Eastern” means “people from the Middle East” and “Chinese” means “people born in China” and so on. This amount of redundancy is completely unnecessary and mars an otherwise excellent site (particularly since the definitions contained on the page are patently obvious anyway).
Overall, however, the site should provide a useful resource for professionals and students. Site designers state that the “recommended titles reflect the quality and complexity of material students should be reading at school and outside class”. Users will find many good ideas for reading material, and the annotations should help save valuable time in selecting reading materials suitable for student and patron needs.
This review was first published in Reference Reviews Volume 16 Number 4 2002.