LibGuides: AMS S 370: Children's Literature and American Culture: Book Reviews &amp; Historical Newspapers/Magazines

Types of Book Reviews

A book review is a written analysis of a book that critiques its scholarship, content, and overall quality. There are three different types of book reviews you can find in library databases.

Popular/Literary Reviews: Article-length reviews published soon after a book is released. Find in popular (non-scholary) publications like the New York Review of Books or the Times Literary Supplement, which are often included in periodical databases.

Academic Reviews: Longer in length and published in scholarly journals, about books released by scholarly/university presses. Often published several months, even years, after a book is released. Find them in scholarly journal databases.

Library Reviews: Short, often only paragraph-length, intended to help librarians choose books for collections. Find them in publications like Choice or Kirkus Review.

Databases with book reviews

Children’s Literature comprehensive database This link opens in a new window
Book reviews of children's literature
Updated regularly. Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database is an online database of over 400,000 book reviews and related information about children’s literature. Search options allow users to locate books by age level, grade level, reading levels, genre, author/illustrator, language and more. Many curriculum tools are also available, including: lesson plans, teaching guides and discussion guides.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
Reviews for books published in the U.K. Keep in mind, books first published in the U.S. typically were published later in the U.K. Covers 1902-2015.
The complete online fully-searchable edition of the Times Literary Supplement from the first edition in 1902 to 2014. This is the essential companion for studying and researching literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1902, the TLS has scrutinized, applauded and dissected the work of leading writers and thinkers, offering comprehensive coverage of the most important publications, in every subject, in several languages, as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions.
Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window
A database of book reviews, going back to 1983. Mostly covers scholarly books, but has some coverage of mainstream publishing.
Brings together book reviews on subjects such as art, biography, business, education, general interest, history, humanities, literature, music science & technology and more with coverage back to 1983. Many of the reviews are serious, academic works.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times backfile in an easy-to-search interface, from 1851-2013.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A massive database of magazines, scholarly journals, and other publications. Use the facets "Review" or "Book Review" to limit your search to reviews.
Updated daily. A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.

New York Review of Books
Search the New York Review of Books backfile from 1963-2018. Some articles are behind a paywall, but you can access the print at the PCL.

Children's Book Review Publications

The Horn Book Magazine
A magazine focused on children's book publishing, focusing on reviews, author profiles, and news from the publishing industry, from the 1920s to the 2010s.
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Use the Horn Book Index (call no. Z 1037 A1 A15 SUPPL.) to search for articles from 1924-1989. Use Academic Search Complete to search for articles from 1990-present
Library Journal
Library Journal is a magazine of book reviews intended to aid librarians making collection purchases. Useful for historical context.

Newspaper, Magazine, and Other Articles

Articles from newspapers, magazines, and similar publications can give you historical context around the time a book was written and published. Look for profiles on authors, editorials, and pieces about film adaptations.

Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Includes general-interest magazines from the 20th Century.
NOTE: Please close your browser window when you're done.
Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Covers more than 375 titles.
View the list of journals covered.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes magazines like the New Yorker, Newsweek, and Time.
Updated daily. A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Includes Seventeen, Essence, Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, and more.
An archival research resource comprising the full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1851 - 2018. Unlimited users.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.
American Periodicals Series (APS) This link opens in a new window
American newspapers, magazines, literary publications, and professional publications, from 1740-1940.
Updated daily. Contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. Titles include Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, the first American professional journals, and several consumer magazines still in publication, such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal. The search interface allows you to search the complete text, including tables of contents, by boolean and keyword operators. Articles are linked to the corresponding page images, downloadable in PDF format.