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Top Ten YA Web Resources
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Top Ten YA Web Resources(Thanks to Marie Hardenbrook, former Librarian at McClintock High School in Tempe and now a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, for helping me find some of these sources.) ALAN: The Assembly on Literature for AdolescentsALAN is a special interest group of the National Council of Teachers of English founded in 1973. It sponsors The ALAN Review and an annual two-day workshop featuring YA authors and their books, along with presentations by editors, teachers, and librarians. The ALAN workshops are held in conjunction with National Council of Teachers of English annual conferences which meet in different parts of the country every November. The ALAN ReviewThe Digital Library and Archives: Formerly the Scholarly Communications Project at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, sponsors this site, which includes reprints of complete articles from The ALAN Review since 1994.http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/ Amazon.comThis commercial site is the most useful source I’ve found for knowing what books are currently in print and available. It also provides space for reader comments so that it’s a good place for teenagers to recommend books to each other.
The Children’s Literature Web Guide David K. Brown from the University of Calgary manages this helpful site, which offers links to book news including the winners of awards and news about upcoming conferences; children’s and YA literature discussion groups; professional organizations; book reviews, and other educational resources. Especially useful is his “Best Books of the Year: A Roundup of Annual Book Lists Published on the Web.” (http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ Free Expression Clearinghouse—A Guide to Free Speech and the First Amendment This is an efficient way to keep up on censorship news. Headlines and summaries are given with many news items printed in full. http://www.freeexpression.org/ The International Reading AssociationIRA’s Website presents information about the organization’s goals, activities, publications, and book lists. The organization’s focus used to be on the teaching of reading in elementary schools, but members’ interests have extended upwards now that reading is being taught more in junior and senior high schools high schools. The Internet Public Library: Issues and ConflictsLinks are provided to nearly 20 recommended resources, some aimed at adults but most aimed directly at teenagers. Topics include drug and health education, conflict resolution, youth advocacy, political involvement, emotional health, and current news of interest to young people. http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/teen/teen.db.out.pl?id+ic0000 Multnomah County Library Outnernet for Young AdultsWhile some of the links on this site go to information about local library events, most of them are of national interest. It is especially good at providing information to aspiring writers and presenting such “offbrand” reading recommendations as “Reader’s Robot,” which promises to search a database of 2000 titles to find the one that fits the user’s profile; “Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists,” and Cathy Young’s irreverent reviews of “Favorite Teenage Angst Books.” http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/outer/books.html New York Public Library Teen LinkA standard reference for young adult librarians has been the New York Public Library’s annual Books for the Teen Age. Excerpts are now available immediately, as well as information about the Teen Age Cover Contest, and links to Internet sites for fun, sports, homework help, hotlines, media news, teen writings, and information on colleges. http://www.nypl.org/branch/teen/teenlink.html
Teen Hoopla: An Internet Guide for TeensThe parent organization for this Website is YALSA (Young Adult Library Service Association) of the American Library Association. Links invite readers to submit book reviews, nominate books for YALSA’s booklists, get information on Teen Read Week, see what books were voted as Teens Top Ten, and visit other sites which review books for young readers. |
