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Find most ASU Library books, e-books, journal articles, and other resources.
To find books, click on Advanced Search, All Items, scroll up and select Books.
To search for children's or young adult books by genre do a keyword search using the name of the genre and either 'children's or 'young adult'.
For example to locate a children's or young adult science fiction books do one of these keyword searches:
science fiction childrens
science fiction young adult
Following are subject headings that can be searched to locate children's and young adult literature in the library catalog. Often searching by keyword is as fruitful in locating titles and an easier search to perform. The keyword "juvenile" can to added to any topic search to find books suitable for young people. The subjects listed below are divided between those used to find titles FOR children and those used for finding books ABOUT children's and young adult literature.
To locate books FOR Children & Young Adults use these subjects:
Picture Books for Children
Children's Poetry
Children - Books and Reading
Teenagers - Books and Reading
Young Adult Fiction
Young Adult Literature
Juvenile Literature
A genre is a category of literature which is defined by the pattern or structure of a literary work. Each genre contains universal elements of form and content. Generally there are two main sub-categories: fiction and non-fiction.
According to Galda, Cullinan & Swipe in their 2010 book, Literature and the Child the following constitute the genres in children's and young adult literature:
Genres in Children's and Young Adult Literature
| Category: | Brief Description: |
| Picture books |
Are considered a format and not a genre. They are a format in which art and text are interdependent. All genres appear in picture books. |
| Poetry and Verse | Condensed language, expression of imaginative thoughts and perceptions, often containing rhythm and other devices of sound, imagery, and figurative language. |
| Folklore | Traditional stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and songs from the past. Oral tradition with no known author, passed on from generation to generation. |
| Fantasy | Stories set in places that do not exist, about people and creatures that could not exist or events that could not happen. Make-believe and imaginative worlds. |
|
Science Fiction |
Based on extending physical laws and scientific principles to their logical outcomes, usually futuristic. Describes worlds that are plausible and could exist someday. |
| Contemporary Realistic Fiction | Stories could happen in the real world; characters seem real; contemporary setting. |
| Historical Fiction | Stories reconstruct life in the past, using realistic actual and fictional characters, events and historical setting. |
| Biography | An account of a person's life, or part of a life history by someone else or the person him or herself. Includes, autobiographies, memoirs, letters, diaries, journals. |
| Nonfiction | Informational books that explain a subject or concept using facts about the real world. |
