Resources

Here are some resources to check out-  I am still planning on going through the Caldecott winners but I may reopen the span a bit so that there are books related to each major war in the last 60 years (starting with WWII).

So here are some things that may be helpful-
http://library.loganutah.org/books/children/peace.cfm This is a general books about peace collection of groups from the Logan Library.

http://www.carylibrary.org/children/pdfs/peace.pdf The Promoting Peace document has a section for young readers- this may be helpful. 

Some titles:
Borden, Louise.  Sleds on Boston Common : A Story from the American Revolution. [OLDER] E Borden
Henry complains to the royal governor, General Gage, after his plan to sled down the steep hill at Boston Common is thwarted by the masses of British troops camped there.
Castrovilla, Selene.  By the Sword.  J 973.332 C (Non fiction picture book)
Follows Benjamin Tallmadge's participation in the U.S. revolutionary war.
Deedy, Carmen Agra.   The Yellow Star : The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark.[OLDER] E Deedy
Retells the story of King Christian X and the Danish resistance to the Nazis during World War II.
Judge, Lita.  One thousand tracings : healing the wounds of World War II. [OLDER] E Judge
The author describes her family's efforts to help their friends and others who were left homeless and hungry in the aftermath of World War II.
Noble, Trinka Hakes.  The Last Brother : a Civil War tale. [OLDER] E Noble
Eleven-year-old Gabe enlists in the Union Army in Pennsylvania along with his older brother Davy and, as bugler, does his best to protect Davy during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Wiviott, Meg.  Benno and the Night of Broken Glass.  [OLDER] E Wiviott
In 1938 Berlin, Germany, a cat sees Rosenstrasse change from a peaceful neighborhood of Jews and Gentiles to an unfriendly place where, one November night, men in brown shirts destroy Jewish-owned businesses and arrest or kill Jewish people. Includes facts about Kristallnacht and a list of related books and web resources.
*These are suggested by the Nassau Library- http://www.nassaulibrary.org/hewlett/picturehistorical.html

Another resource to look into more- http://www.westchesterlibraries.org/projectliberty/listviolent.html.

Lastly, all the above came through searching of the IPL.

I am going to have to stick to books about war... so I am avoiding books about slavery in general (although it did play a huge part in the civil war).  I am going to try to anticipate the grey areas.

I am going to have to focus...

I am going to have to focus this a lot more. 

Here are some potentially helpful resources through TCL:
Global Books In Print (though it may return way too many search results)
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (which I am very comfortable with!)
Books and Authors (pretty self-explanatory)
Wilson Core Collections

One way that I could focus in is by looking at the war books that have won awards in the past 60 years.  By narrowing in on the Caldecott winners, I am guaranteed to get picture books... plus it might be interesting how many of the selections are about war.
 
This website lists the books without description so I can just look up these titles in World Cat (which was the best source to check out the descriptions in compared to Amazon & Children's Literature Comprehensive Database)
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecotthonors/caldecottmedal.cfm#60s

Just to see if this would be a good gauge- I looked up the titles for 50-53 and found one pertaining to war (called America's Ethan Allen- a biography of the patriot and soldier who led the Green Mountain Boys in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775).

Where to Start?

I want to jump right into this so....

One awesome resource I think will be Wilson Web as I will be able to search their Core Collections, which date back to 2007.  This will give me an idea of what is available now.  Plus, I can modify searching by book grade level so I am going to stick with 4 grade and below, as these are always below middle school level.  I think that I will then have to manually just look through results.  Upon this search with the keyword 'war' search for nonfiction books, there are some 160+ results.  Clearly, I will have to dwindle my survey group down some. 
Even just focusing on picture book would be too overwhelming to be able to do from the last 60 years.  So, I could choose the best (which I would probably define as more popular) 10 or so from every 5 years.  That would leave me with about 120 books to review.  Still too much?

New Plan

Okay so I am changing my topic...

My new plan is to do a survey of children's literature that focuses on war.  I am particularly look at picture books and those for children in elementary school and below.  This research may lead to further questions about how these books affect children's perspectives on war but I think I do need a founation first.

So, tentatively, I am going to look at books from the last 60 years (1950+).  I also want to note the attitude about war promoted in these books.  This seems (but probably won't be) easy enough except that I need to determine a couple more things.  I am not sure where to draw the line in terms of symbolism.  I thought of only looking at non-fiction books... but I think I would like it more inclusive.  It will be tricky, however, to thoroughly dissect all fiction books that do not discuss war directly but clearly respresent it symbolically.  Plus, I need to determine how big of a role war needs to play in the text to be labeled as a war book.

These are just some things to think about!

Not related to my research project but...

I am reading an article about technology use in schools and I just wanted to share that they are discussing generalizability in small case studies.  Basically, there are all these individual classroom pieces of evidence (increase math scores here, better writing skills there) but are based on case studies... the changes in these classroom are definitely applicable to other classes.  However, state standardized tests are not increasing after huge technology upheavals & appropriate implementations.  States are looking for ways to make generalized statements about technology's (hopefully) positive affect on learning.  Many say that standardized tests simply can not measure the learning that is now occuring in classrooms (of 21st Century Skills).... so, clearly, these people have not taken a Research Methods class.  If the data is not helping, find a new method of collecting a different type of data!

Not that you will want to read the whole article, but here it is anyway- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=2&_r=4&smid=fb-share.

Finalized Idea?

Okay... I think I am settling on the idea of research the popularity of Newberry award-winning books.  There was recently an article by Anita Silvey, critiquing the most recent Newberry winners (Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?).

This opens the door for some real-world research.  Silvey references some favorite Newberry's in the past, such as Charlotte's Web.  These were/are books that kids love!  Silvey argues that the recent books are not as popular with children... that "It’s possible in an age of sequels that committee members have unintentionally gravitated toward quirky offerings. But valuing uniqueness over universality has often led judges down the wrong road."

So, my new plan is to look at circulation records in school libraries of the Newberry Winners from the last 10 (?) years.  To keep things uniform, I will look at the circulation records of each Newberry winner in the year after winning the award (clearly, it would be unfair for me to say that Charlotte's Web has been checked out a million times and is therefore the better book.... if Good Masters, Sweet Ladies has had half that amount of time to gain momentum.)  Also, because Newberry is primarily for children's literature, I am going to look in a couple elementary/middle schools.

So, those are my ideas so far!

HIV/AIDS Graphic Novel on Dipity.

I am embedding this timeline because it seems like an example of a timeline for a real-world research project, plus I had fun making it!  This is actually a timeline for a grant proposal to make a graphic novel to educate teens about HIV/AIDS. 

More ideas!

I feel like, if I searched hard enough, I could find a famous quote about the best research coming from a plethora of ideas.  So, hopefully, I am on the right track because I have two more vague research ideas.

1. Researching something about freshman preparedness for college (focusing on the student athletes)
2. I read an article the other day that criticized the Newberry award for becoming unrelated to children's real preferences.  Therefore, I could analyze the popularity of the Newberry, Caldecott, Other awards in actual student reading.  I could also see which titles are making into the classroom curriculum.

Those are just two new ideas... that I could be equally excited about!  So, who knows!

Where to begin?!?

These blog posts will mainly be my musing while developing a research proposal.  It always helps for me to "talk out" my ideas and this is a good way to do just that. So...

I am thinking of looking into what children are reading (what a novel idea!).  Specifically, I am considering one of the following research ideas:

1. Comparing the circulation records of public and school libraries for children's literature.  I want to see if children are checking out mainly education/content-related book from school libraries & pleasure reads from the public library. 
2. Comparing the circulation records at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.  I personally checked out books for pleasure when I was in high school, mainly.  I tended to stick with education related books in middle school.  I would like to see if this is a common trend.

So.... those are my ideas.  I am not quite sure how feasible it all will be.  However, I do think that both could show how libraries should focus on collection development.