Fiction or non-fiction? Finding children’s books

Using library catalogs to find children’s books can be a challenge if you aren’t familiar with the way that libraries organize books by subject. Following are a few tips that are specific to searching books in the online catalog at the UIUC Library. These tips are helpful searching any library catalog, though, since the techniques are common to most online catalogs and also can be used in other databases. Of course, if you still aren’t finding what you are looking for, it’s always a good idea to ask staff in the Library for assistance!

Happy searching!

Searching for non-fiction books

Many libraries use a standard list of subject headings or descriptors in their online catalogs, one of the most common being the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This means that once you figure out the terms used to identify books on a particular topic, you can use them repeatedly and in a variety of ways. For children’s non-fiction books, the standard subject heading is “juvenile literature.” For fiction, the subject heading is “juvenile fiction.” Since most people commonly use the term “literature” to describe high quality imaginative writings, this is not an intuitive use of the term for non-fiction, which leads to confusion.

For example, when looking for children’s books on holidays or animals, such as kangaroos, you will need to search the online catalog at
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/
Choose the “Advanced Search” option. Type in “holidays” in the first box, and then select “Subject words” in the drop-down box to the right. Then type in “juvenile literature” in the second row of boxes, also selecting “Subject words” on the right. This should give you a list of over 150 children’s books. These are all non-fiction (typically these will have a call number beginning with S. followed by a number such as 394).

There is no easy way to tell if non-fiction books are appropriate for younger children. One way to get that information is to look at the record for each book and see how many pages it has. Books for younger children generally have 48 pages or fewer.

Searching for fiction books

Finding children’s fiction books is very similar to the strategy above. You simply substitute “juvenile fiction” for “juvenile literature.” For example, using the holidays example above, you would type in “holidays” in the first box, and then select “Subject words” in the drop-down box to the right. Then type in “juvenile fiction” in the second row of boxes, also selecting “Subject words” on the right. This should give you a list of about 15 children’s books. If you want to expand this list, type in “fiction” in the second box instead. Due to a quirk in the subject headings, a separate category for children’s book subjects uses this term. When you type in “fiction” instead of “juvenile fiction” you will get a mixed list of adult and children’s books, however. Also, with a term like holidays, you can find more specific books listed under the individual holiday, such as “Kwanzaa.”
If you are looking for books for younger children, the picture books have a prefix of SE. in the UIUC Library. You can also look at each record to see how many pages the book has. Books with about 32 pages seem to be typical for picture books for younger children.

Finding fiction and non-fiction in a single search

If you want to find fiction and non-fiction books at the same time, follow the strategy above, but simply use the term “juvenile” as your second search term. If you were looking for fiction and non-fiction books about kangaroos, you would choose the “Advanced Search” option. Type in “kangaroos” in the first box, and then select “Subject words” in the drop-down box to the right. Then type in “juvenile” in the second row of boxes, also selecting “Subject words” on the right. This will give you a combined list of fiction and non-fiction books. The non-fiction books typically have a call number beginning with S. followed by a number such as 559.2; the fiction books typically have a call number beginning with S. (fiction for older readers or chapter books) or SE. (picture books or easy readers) followed by the first letter of the author’s last name.

As always, if you have difficulty finding what you need in a library catalog or database, please ask for assistance.

Finding Cinderella Picture Books

This guide suggests two alternative ways to locate titles of Cinderella picture books. Cinderella stories includes those that are adapted or retold from Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper (Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre) by Charles Perrault, Cinderella (Aschenputtel) and All-Kinds-of-Fur (Allerleirauh) by the Grimm Brothers, and all other folktale variants from around the world—often called “multicultural Cinderella stories”. Any story of the Aarne-Thompson tale type 510A, 510B, 511, and 511B is considered a Cinderella story in this guide.
You can locate book titles in
a) the University Online Library Catalog; or
b) print and online bibliographies.

a) Search the University Online Library Catalog
(http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/)

The “problem” with Cinderella stories is often “too many” adaptations and retellings are out there, not the opposite. This guide offers tips on how to scale down your search results to a more manageable level.

Before you do your search, remember that the word “Cinderella,” if it appears in a catalog record, can appear in title, contents (table of contents), summary, or even subject field. Searching “Cinderella” in the title field will find plenty of Cinderella stories, but you will miss some fractured versions of the story, or collections that contain the story. Still, some Cinderella stories do not have the magic word “Cinderella” appearing anywhere in their catalog record.

How do I limit the search result to children’s books or picture books?

Most of the children’s books are held in these four places of the UIUC Library: Education & Social Science Library, Center for Children’s Books, Rare Books & Special Collections, and University High School.

First, set Location limit to “Education & Social Science” or “Center for Children’s Books” or both. Then try “Guided Keyword Search” as either of the following:

cinderella — all of these — Any Words

cinderella — all of these — Title Words
The Online Catalog does not offer an efficient way to limit your search result to single-edition picture books. Do not use “Picture books” or “Picture books for children” as search terms, which will NOT find many Cinderella books for you. Instead, sift through the list, looking for books that are unpaged (the “Physical Description” field will say “1 v”) or under 40 page, unless you are looking for collections of illustrated stories.

How do I limit the search result to Cinderella stories adapted from Charles Perrault’s version?

Not all books that are adapted from Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault give credit to him. Try “Guided Keyword Search” to locate as many titles as possible:

cinderella perrault — all of these — Any Words
OR
cinderella france folklore — all of these — Any Words
How do I limit the search result to “multicultural” Cinderella books?

The following strategy does not retrieve a comprehensive list of multicultural Cinderella stories, but does find a lot of them.

cinderella — all of these — Any Words
AND
folklore — all of these — Subject Words
NOT
france perrault — any of these — Any Words
b) Use print or online bibliographies

Online bibliographies of Cinderella books:

The Cinderella Bibliography (http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/cinintr.htm)
A comprehensive annotated bibliography of Cinderella stories and variants in all media and formats dating back to ancient times. A high-quality scholarly resource updated until 2002. See the “Modern Children’s Editions and Adaptations” drop-down menu, which allows locating book titles by the origin of variant Cinderella folktales.

SurLaLune Fairy Tales Picture Book Gallery for Cinderella
(http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/picturebooks.html)
Displays covers of Cinderella picture books, which are categorized under “traditional,” “multicultural,” “fractured,” “animals,” “miscellaneous,” and “bilingual.” Each cover links to book information at amazon.com.

The Children’s Literature Web Guide: Cinderella Stories
(http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/cinderella.html)
Organizes research resources for Cinderella stories under “internet resources,” (many are unfortunately not working) “reference books,” “articles,” “picture books and full-length versions,” and “versions in collections.”

Print bibliographies of Cinderella books:

New tales for old : folktales as literary fictions for young adults. 1999. [398.2083 D34n] (CCB;Education)

Cinderella. Oryx Press. 1992.
[S.398.21 C49] (S-Coll)

The storyteller’s sourcebook: a subject, title, and motif index to folklore collections for children. 1982. [S. 016.3982 M145s]
(CCB;Education Juvenile Reference; LIS Reference)

The storyteller’s sourcebook: a subject, title, and motif index to folklore collections for children, 1983-1999.
[Q. 016.3982 M145so] (CCB Reference;LIS Reference)

Title list of Cinderella stories

Below is an incomplete title list of retellings or fractured versions of Charles Perrault’s Cinderella story published since the 1980s, including single-edition picture books and a few collections of illustrated stories. All are accessible through our library.

Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella. [Q. S.398.2 J648b]
Bubba the Cowboy Prince: a fractured Texas tale [SE. K511b]
Candlewick book of fairy tales [Q.S. 398.21 H329C1993]
Cinder Edna [Q.SE. J1332C]
Cinderella [Q.S. 398.2 D3732C]
Cinderella [SE. SA52C]
Cinderella : a creative tale from the collection Once upon a time
[Q. 398.2094402 P426c:E]
Cinderella Bigfoot [SE. T327c]
Cinderella penguin: or, the little glass flipper [Q.SE. P422C]
Cinderella: an art deco love story [Q. S.398.2 R542c]
Cinderella: the untold story (ILCSO libraries]
Cinderella’s dress [Q. S.398.2 W661c]
Cinder-Elly [SE. M668c]
Cinderlily: a floral fairy tale in three acts [Q. S.398.2 El59c]
Cindy Ellen: a wild Western Cinderella [Q. S.398.2 L951c]
Classic fairy tales [S. 398.21 C864C]
Ella’s big chance [Q. S. H874e]
Fanny’s dream [Q.SE. B861F]
Kingfisher book of fairy tales [Q. S.398.2 F889k2000]
Prince Cinders [SE. C6742P1988]
Roald Dahl’s revolting rhymes [S. 821 D138R]
Sidney Rella and the glass sneaker [SE. M9923S]
Sleeping beauty & other favourite fairy tales [Q.S. 398.210944 SL25]Smoky Mountain rose: an Appalachian Cinderella [Q.S. 398.2 SCH76S]Treasury of children’s literature [S. 808 T71]

Retelling of Grimm Brothers’ Cinderella story:

Cinderella, retold from the Brothers Grimm [S.398.2 H6792cl]

*Note for Location:
CCB—Center for Children’s Books: Materials are non-circulating
Education Juvenile Reference—School (S)-Collection room of ESSL: Materials are non-circulating
ILCSO—ILCSO Libraries: Materials can be requested online
Remote—Education Remote Storage: Closed stacks; materials can be requested online or in person
S-Coll—School (S)-Collection room of ESSL: Materials are open stacks; can also be requested online or in person
Storage—Education Storage: Closed stacks; materials can be requested online or in person
Uni High: Materials can be requested online or in person