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Children's Literature

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Finding Children's Books with a Theme

If you want to find a children's book on a particular topic from the library, it can be difficult to find. While some children's books will have "subject terms" or descriptions about the theme of the book, many more do not, so searching for a children's book about collaboration gets difficult.


Here are some examples of children's books as they appear in the library. While they both have themes and lessons for the readers, these themes are not always reflected in the subject terms.

One strategy to finding children's books that are about a particular topic or theme in the library is to find lists of books on the theme from the internet, then search for those books individually in the library.

Finding Book Lists on the Internet

The quickest way to get a list of children's books on a topic is to search in Google for:

children's books [topic]

You will get book lists that other people have compiled of children's books on that topic. Here are a few example searches:

These will help you get ideas of what books there are about a topic or theme. Keep in mind that these lists are not comprehensive and will not be perfect. Be sure to find out yourself if the book meets your criteria!


Here are some websites that will have book lists to help you out:

Finding Books in the Library

Once you have a book or two in mind, you can search the library to see if we have it!

Search for the title of the book in Discover, then select the "Print Books" filter on the left side of the search results. In this example, I chose the first book from this list of books about belonging (Corduroy) and searched in Discover. The first result is the book:

Picture books will generally be in the children's collection shelf in the Main Library on the second floor.


We will not have every book that are listed -- you may have to try a few titles until you find one that we have. If you have your heart set on a particular book, check if it is available from the local public library.