Children's & Young Adult Literature Resources: Digital Collections

University of Florida. The collection “contains more than 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 1700s through the current year. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States.”

“The largest collection of antique books online … we think”. Among other things, they do translations of works for children, including written and audio. Some versions are available for free.

Books for children from around the world. From the University of California Libraries, the University of Florida's "Literature for Children" Collection, the National Yiddish Book Center, the New York Public Library, International Children's Digital Library, and other libraries.

Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Mostly mid-19th to early 20th century.

This is a non-academic, personal website that contains many ads, but also links to many classic 19th century children's books, some of which may be unique to this site.

University of Southern Mississippi Libraries. “The de Grummond Children‟s Literature Digital Collection contains a selection of items from manuscript collections located in the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection in McCain Library & Archives.”

“This series introduces famous picture books of Japan and the West in the period from the eighteenth century to the 1930s. Looking at the books made in different countries during this time we can see at work a ceaseless process of transmission of images that appeal universally to the hearts of children, transcending states, eras, and even the individual traits of the artists.” Requires Shockwave; audio and musical accompaniment.

“The Hockliffe Collection is a unique cache of over a thousand early British children's books. … The books in the Hockliffe Collection range in date from 1685 to the mid-twentieth century, although the majority of works were printed between 1760 and 1840. The collection is not comprehensive, but it is representative of the wide range of writing for children in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There are fables, nursery tales and stories, and there are books of instruction and religious works. There are periodicals and books of poetry, alphabets, spelling books and battledores. There are chapbooks and ballads, and mathematical, geographical, historical and scientific books. And there are toy-books, game-books, and books with moveable parts.”

“The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world."

University of Pennsylvania, Digital Library. A handful of full-text winners/honor books.

Great resource, and not just for children's literature!