Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature

By Rana DiOrio, Founder, Little Pickle Press
August 29, 2010

While doing some research on an entirely unrelated topic, I stumbled upon a valuable resource for finding the best children’s books—Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature:

http://www.dawcl.com/instructions.html

The Purpose. The stated purpose of this database is to create a tailored reading list of quality children's literature or to find out if a book has won one of the indexed awards. Users include librarians, teachers, parents, grandparents, bookstore personnel, and children and young adults themselves.

The Contents. The database has over 8,300 records representing 91 awards across six English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland). Each award is explained thoroughly and calendared. Each book is indexed so users may find it using the form search or the keyword search. Naturally, DAWCL is a work in progress, so results will change with the addition of new awards, award-winners, and the evolution of reading/indexing practices.

The Mastermind. The dedicated scholar who compiled the database is Lisa Bartle, a reference librarian at California State University, San Bernardino. Lisa earned a BA in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1990) and an MA in English, with an emphasis on Medieval and Renaissance poetry, prose, and drama, from the University of California, Riverside (1993). After working as a student in one of UCSB's libraries, then a staff member at the UCR Physical Sciences Library, she decided to earn a Masters in Library and Information Science and become a librarian. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997. While attending UCLA she conceived the idea for the Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature. If you have a compliment or question about this remarkable database, Lisa invites you to contact her at ellerbeetimes@yahoo.com. If you do, please be sure to tell her that Little Pickle Press sent you.