A common homework assignment is the preparation of literary critical analyses. The Syosset Public Library’s Literature Resource Center database is your one-stop shopping source of biographical and critical information on American and foreign authors and their works. It can be accessed from the Homework Help-Literature section of the TeenSpace website.
Literature Resource Center offers a wealth of information including criticism, biographies, bibliographies, work overviews, Web sites, journal articles, compare and contrast pages, and reading lists. It contains over 650,000 full text journal articles from over 300 literary journals, 70,000 critical essays, 7,000 work overviews and 140,000 author biographies. It also includes the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, featuring 10,000 definitions of literary terms and brief author biographies.
Users can search by title, author’s name, ethnicity, nationality, genre or literary movement, keyword or historical period. The results of your search will include links to biographies, literary criticism, bibliographies, additional information and a historical timeline. A nice feature of Literature Resource Center is its Guide to Conducting Literary Research, a step-by-step approach to tackling your assignment (click on Research Guide to access this feature). Try using Literature Resource Center the next time you have to critically analyze a book.
Ed Goldberg
Teen Services Librarian
Archive for June 12, 2007
Database of the Month – Literature Resource Center
Summer Teen Programs
Registration for the Syosset Public Library’s summer Teen programs begins on June 11. So, come in and register for the following exciting programs:
CALLIGRAPHY with Joanne Insinga. Learn the basics of Italics Calligraphy. Monday, July 9. 7-8:30 PM. Material Fee: $4.25. Refreshments will be served.
TEEN BOOK BUDDY VOLUNTEERS: read to children 3 ½ years old to 1st Grade. A fun program. Monday, July 16. 7–8 PM. Free. Refreshments will be served.
SUMMER READING WRAP UP PIZZA AND MYSTERY MOVIE PARTY. (What the movie will be is the mystery.) Friday, August 10. 6 PM. Free. (Ongoing registration limited to Summer Reading Club members who have read at least one book.)
Ed Goldberg
Teen Services Librarian
Win Some Books
Here are two contests for you. Entries are due by June 30.
Win a copy of Dairy Queen and its sequel Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Dairy Queen was one of my favorite books of 2006. D. J. Schwenk is a football-loving 15-year-old who takes over the chores on her family’s small Wisconsin dairy farm when her dad is sidelined by an injury. Like the rest of the tongue-tied Schwenks, D.J. is not much of a talker. Then she meets Brian, a snooty quarterback from a rival team who she agreed to train, and she finally learns who she is and what she wants. A unique look at girls who like ‘guy’ sports.
In Off Season, life is looking up for D.J. She’s in eleventh grade. After a rocky summer, she’s reconnecting with her best friend, Amber. She’s got kind of a thing going with Brian. And she’s starting for the Red Bend High School football team—the first girl linebacker in northern Wisconsin, probably. However, as autumn progresses, D.J. struggles to understand Amber, Schwenk Farm, her relationship with Brian, and most of all her family. As a whole herd of trouble comes her way, she discovers she’s a lot stronger than she—or anyone—ever thought.
Cut and paste the URL below and enter. http://www.yabookscentral.com/cfusion/index.cfm?fuseAction=home.OffSeason
Win of copy of Beige by Cecil Castelluci
Castelluci, author of Boy Proof and The Queen of Cool, has written another page turner. Now that she’s exiled from Canada to sunny Los Angeles, Katy figures she’ll bury her nose in a book and ignore the fact that she’s spending two weeks with her father — punk name: the Rat — a recovered addict and drummer for the famously infamous band Suck. Even though Katy doesn’t want to be there, even though she feels abandoned by her mom, even though the Rat’s place is a mess and he’s not like anything she’d call a father, Katy won’t make a fuss. After all, she is a nice girl, a girl who is quiet and polite, a girl who smiles, a girl who is, well, beige. Or is she?
Cut and paste the URL below and enter to win a copy of Beige. http://www.yabookscentral.com/cfusion/index.cfm?fuseAction=home.Beige
Ed Goldberg
Teen Services Librarian