Books & Literature
General
Recommended Reading Lists - The South Plainfield Public Library staff has put together dozens of reading lists for kids, tweens & teens, and adults to help you find books you'll enjoy; new lists are added regularly. The lists cover popular fiction & non-fiction genres/subjects, seasonal & holiday themes, favorite authors & series, and more. If you see a book on one of the lists that interests you, just click on the *CHECK CATALOG* button and request it!
Facts On File: Bloom's Literary Reference Online - Examines great writers, important works, memorable characters, and influential movements and events in world literature. If you're using this resource at home, you'll have to enter your library card barcode to begin.
Ebsco Literary Reference Center - Information on the most studied authors and their works from antiquity to the present day. Full-text from from over 1,000 books and monographs, major literary encyclopedias and reference works, hundreds of literary journals, and unique sources. Now includes Masterplots! If you're using this resource at home, you'll have to enter your library card barcode to begin.
CENSORED: Wielding the Red Pen - An online exhibit which 'hopes not so much to judge censors and censorship but instead to provoke questions' about whether there are any situations where restrictions on materials or ideas might be justified or appropriate. Click on Walk Through the Exhibit to get started (University of Virginia). See also Banned and Challenged Books (American Library Association).
Glossary of Literary Terms - Brief definitions for dozens of commonly-used literary terms, arranged alphabetically (Paul Gutjahr, Department of English, Indiana University). For additional terms, see Literary Terms & Definitions UPDATED LINK! [Archived page] (Dr. L. Kip Wheeler, Carson-Newman College).
Libraries: History of the Library [Archived page] - A brief history of libraries from ancient Mesopotamia to the 20th century United States (By Barbara Krasner-Khait; 2001, History Magazine). See also The History of Libraries (from the Ancient World to the Digital Age) (2023, Encyclopaedia Britannica), and A History of U.S. Public Libraries (2015, Digital Public Library of America).
Norton Study Guides - See Literature by Women and Western Literature.
Writing Papers & Homework Assignments - See How to Write a Paper and Cite Sources.
Authors
See also:
MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
LITERARY CRITICISM
African-American Literature (Lit2Go) AUDIO - Briefly describes key authors and key works from the 19th through early 20th century, with online texts and audiobooks (University of South Florida). Black Literature provides an overview of African American literature from the 1920s to the 1980s (Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1989). African American Women Writers of the 19th Century offers e-texts (essays, fiction, poetry) and biographies for more than three dozen authors (New York Public Library). See also The ZORA Canon: The 100 greatest books ever written by African American women [Free registration required] (ZORA, a publication for women of color; part of Medium.com). Black European Writers [Archived page] explores the lives and works of authors such as Alexander Pushkin, Alexandre Dumas, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and John Archer, who had a mixed European and African ancestry (British Library). See also MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE, below.
American Writers VIDEO - This companion website for C-Span's 2001 'American Writers' TV series takes a look at writers from the founding of the nation through the 20th century. American Passages VIDEO is a college-level video course on American literature; includes 16 half-hour video programs on different literary movements, plus an instructor's guide, study guide, and website with brief biographies, timelines, activities and more (Annenberg Media). Perspectives in American Literature covers important American authors from pre-1700 to the late 20th Century & Postmodernism, as well as a variety of themes and movements. Each author entry gives a picture and a bibliography of works by and about the author. Many entries include a biographical essay; some also offer study questions, comments, links, and/or other resources (Paul P. Reuben, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, California State University).
Black Literature - See African-American Literature, above.
Children's Authors and Illustrators (Reading Rockets) VIDEO - Video interviews with many popular authors and illustrators of books for children & young adults; searchable by name, age level, genre, and diversity. AdLit.org also offers video Interviews with Middle Grade and Young Adult Authors VIDEO. 'Learn about their childhoods, the teachers who influenced them, why they became writers, and insightful details about their research and writing process.' (Both from WETA Public Broadcasting; site includes advertisements)
Dante Worlds AUDIO - 'A multimedia journey—combining textual commentary, artistic images, and audio recordings—through the three realms (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise) of Dante's Divine Comedy.' Each section gives a summary analysis, brief explication of icons & allusions, illustrations, and study questions. For college and advanced high school students (By Guy P. Raffa, Associate Professor of Italian, University of Texas). See also Digital Dante: Chronology (Columbia University).
Dr. Seuss: Who's Who and What's What - An A to Z glossary with brief descriptions of characters, objects, places, and events in the books of Dr. Seuss. (Compiled by Edward Connery Lathem, Dartmouth College)
English Literature: Contemporary Writers in the UK - 'Up-to-date profiles of many of the UK and Commonwealth's most important living writers' (British Council; non-profit organization). See also Western Literature.
Literary History UPDATED LINK! [Archived page] - Links to free, high quality articles and essays about English and American authors from the 19th and 20th centuries. Also covers Women Writers, African American Writers, Postcolonial Literature, and other special topics. (2018; edited by 'independent scholar' Jan Pridmore.)
Literature by Women - A web companion to The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Choose a topic from the left hand menu for an essay, discussion questions, illustrations, and contexts. College level (W.W. Norton & Co.). Voices from the Gaps [Archived page] offers biographical, critical and bibliographical information about women writers of color (2009 - 2014, University of Minnesota). See also MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE, below.
Milton's Paradise Lost: Darkness Visible - Many helpful study resources for Milton's epic poem, including a plot summary, character descriptions, background essays on Milton's life & times, and a gallery of illustrations, including some interactive images. 'Darkness Visible was put together specifically for those attempting their first or second reading of Paradise Lost... to enable those new to Milton to familiarize themselves with the poet, his work, and his themes, but without patronizing the reader or shying away from more difficult ideas.' High school and up. (By members of Christ's College, Cambridge, UK)
Nobel Prizes in Literature - Information on all winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1901 to the present. Click on the names to get biographies and other resources (Nobel Foundation). Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded in letters, drama, music and journalism since 1917. Books of the Century includes annual bestseller lists and other critically acclaimed and historically significant books, from 1900 to 1999 (Daniel Immerwahr, Department of History, Northwestern University).
Norton Study Guides - See Literature by Women and Western Literature.
Paris Review Interviews - Contemporary authors such as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, E.M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Arthur Miller, and many others are interviewed about their careers, writing styles, and methods of work. Browse by decade (from the 1950s to the present) or alphabetically; no audio. (Site includes advertisements)
Playwrights and Their Plays: Study Guides - Summaries of dozens of plays, plus playwright biographies, character lists, and more. The plays, by American, British, and international playwrights, range from the 16th century to the present era. Includes Shakespeare (Utah Shakespearean Festival). The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Study & Audience Guides provide plot summaries, critical analyses, historical & biographical background, and more. The printable guides cover many of Shakespeare's works, as well as dozens of other classic and contemporary plays. Chicago Shakespeare Theater Teacher Handbooks UPDATED LINK! [Archived page] provide helpful background material for students & teachers on some of Shakespeare's works and other classic plays. See also SHAKESPEARE links, below.
Shakespeare - See SHAKESPEARE links, below.
Twain's Mississippi AUDIO VIDEO - Resources for studying Mark Twain's life & works, and the history, economics, politics, and culture of his era. Includes primary source materials as well as essays, images, audio and video. High school and up. (Northern Illinois University Libraries et al.)
Western Literature - A web companion to The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, with bulleted overviews of all period introductions in The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, plus timelines, images, maps, and quizzes. High school and up. (2006, W. W. Norton & Company) See also MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE.
Literary Criticism & Study Guides
See also:
AUTHORS
Guides to individual authors/works - See Dante, Milton, Playwrights and Their Plays, Shakespeare, and Mark Twain links.
Norton Study Guides - See Literature by Women and Western Literature.
Spark Notes - A large collection of detailed, printable study guides for many classic literary works (Barnes & Noble; site includes advertisements). See also Cliffs Notes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; site includes advertisements).
How to Write a Paper and Cite Sources
How to Write a Paper and Cite Sources is now located at
http://www.southplainfield.lib.nj.us/homeworklinks/general.htm#cite
Creative Writing & Storytelling
See also:
Poetry
Teen Zone: WRITING
Creative Writing UPDATED LINK! [Archived page] - Helpful advice on writing creative non-fiction, flash fiction, and poetry, with additional tips on character development. (2012, University of Richmond Writing Center)
Elements of a Story AUDIO INTERACTIVE - This multimedia presentation uses the classic tale of Cinderella to explore the different parts of a story: setting, characters, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. For elementary and middle school students. (Annenberg Media)
Exquisite Prompt [Archived page] - A series of monthly writing challenges inspired by authors and illustrators like Jon Scieszka, Katherine Paterson, Kate DiCamillo, Megan McDonald, and other favorites. Use their distinctive genres, styles, themes, and influences as a starting point to create your own stories or poems. The Exquisite Prompt contest has ended, but you can still use the archived prompts [Archived page] to inspire your writing. See additional prompts [Archived page] under Writing Contests. For grades K-12 (Reading Rockets, WETA Public Broadcasting; site includes advertisements). See also Creative Writing Prompts (Art Institute of Chicago) and Seasonal Writing Prompts (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The New York Times Writing Prompts NEW! include Picture Prompts, Student Opinion Questions, and Current Events Conversation; for teens.
Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers [NOTE: Some internal links are broken; scroll down the page for those sections.] - Explains what a short story is and how it should be structured. Covers topics such as writing a catchy opening, developing characters, creating conflict & tension, and more. High school and up. (Dennis G. Jerz, associate professor of English at Seton Hill University; site includes advertisements)
Writing With Writers [Archived pages, may be slow to load] - Authors, editors, and illustrators offer students advice to guide them in developing their writing skills. Covers different types of writing, including biography, folktale, mystery, myth, news, poetry, and book reviews, as well as storytelling.
Multicultural Literature
See also:
Authors
DIVERSITY / MULTICULTURAL RESOURCES
INDIGENOUS / NATIVE PEOPLES
Read Any Great Books Lately?
Useful Websites: BOOKS: Children's & Teens' Books and Reading
LOTE4Kids: An online collection of audio/video picture books in World Languages, created for children to enjoy books and learn language through the magic of storytelling. Thousands of books in over 60 languages from the comfort of home, with English translations to help develop multilingual reading and listening skills.
Recommended Reading Lists - The South Plainfield Public Library staff has put together dozens of reading lists for kids, tweens & teens, and adults to help you find books you'll enjoy; new lists are added regularly. The lists cover popular fiction & non-fiction genres/subjects, seasonal & holiday themes, favorite authors & series, and more. If you see a book on one of the lists that interests you, just click on the *CHECK CATALOG* button and request it!
African-American Literature - See African-American Literature and related links, above.
Books for Celebrating a Diverse Nation of Readers - See Read Across America and related links, below.
Disabilities in Children's Books - A selected list of children's and young adult books featuring characters with disabilities. Covers a wide range of physical, emotional, and learning disabilities (Vanderbilt University). See also Books with Characters Who Have Physical Disabilities (Common Sense Media; non-profit organization), and Children's Books About Disabilities (TeacherVision, part FEN Learning / Sandbox & Co.).
I'm Your Neighbor Books - Promotes the use of children's literature featuring 'new arrival' cultures and groups to engage the entire community in a discussion of commonalities and differences. A drop-down menu allows you to browse books by age group, ethnic group, theme, or region. (Kate Cutko, MSW, Library Director at Bowdoinham Public Library (ME), et al.)
International Children's Digital Library - A digital library of outstanding children's books from all over the world. The collection's focus is on identifying materials that help children to understand the world around them and the global society in which they live. Materials are presented in the original languages in which they were published. (University of Maryland, Internet Archive, et al.)
Latinxs in Kids Lit UPDATED LINK! - Reviews, interviews, and other posts about Latinxs in children's, middle grade, and YA books (by a group of teachers, writers, and librarians). Hispanic Literature offers selected recordings (back to 1943) of critically acclaimed Hispanic writers, plus more recent interviews & readings with emerging and established American poets and prose writers of Hispanic descent who write predominantly in English (Library of Congress). See also De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children (site is written for adults).
Read Across America: Books By Theme - Lists lists to connect children and their families to diverse books, languages, and cultures and spread the joy of reading. Use the Find a Book feature to search for books that reflect your experiences and expand your horizons (National Education Association and Colorín Colorado; site includes advertisements). Multicultural and Diversity Resources and Bibliographies and We Need Diverse Books link to a variety of sites and lists focusing on diversity literature. Diverse Kids & YA Lit lists 'children's and young-adult books that reflect the diverse nature of our world!' You can use the tags to browse books by theme, culture, or age group (Children's Book Council; hosted on GoodReads; site includes advertisements). See also Recommended Literature Search, below.
Recommended Literature Search - Use the customized search on this site to find recommended books about a specific culture, for a specific age group (grades K-12), in a specific genre (i.e., mystery, humor, fantasy, etc.) and/or in a specific language (California Department of Education).
Social Justice: Pirate Tree [Archived page] - A blog highlighting books for children's and young adults 'that delve into themes of social justice and social conscience.' Written by a collective of children's and young adult writers; most recent posts are from 2021. Social Justice Booklists NEW! has more than 100 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators (Teaching for Change, a non-profit organization).
Women's Literature - See Literature by Women and related links, above.
Words Without Borders Campus - Fiction, poetry, and essays from around the world, along with resources for understanding it, ideas for teaching it, and suggestions for further exploration. Most of the literature presented comes from the online magazine Words Without Borders.
World Literature VIDEO - This multimedia course for teachers, students, and lovers of literature includes 13 half-hour video programs on great epics, plays, poetry, and other literary texts that have made their way around the world through time and translation. The accompanying web site provides excerpts of the texts along with background material and reading support; an interactive timeline and a feature on translation; and resources for teaching and further study (Annenberg Foundation).
Poetry
See also:
Teen Zone: WRITING
Glossary of Poetry Terms (Poetry Archive) - You can use this glossary to check how to pronounce a word or phrase, find out what it means and learn how to use it in a sentence. You can explore some of the ways in which poets use language, the choices they make and the effects those choices create. Includes examples to read and listen to. See also Glossary of Poetic Terms (Poetry Foundation). High school and up.
Haiku Resources - A collection of lesson plans and other educational resources for teachers and students at all grade levels. To get started, see New to Haiku: For Beginners. (Haiku Foundation)
Library of Congress Audio Recordings and PENNSound AUDIO VIDEO (University of Pennsylvania) - Historic and contemporary recordings of poets and writers, reading and discussing their work; high school and up.
Poetry Archive AUDIO VIDEO - Audio recordings of poems, with background material on the poets to help you understand the context for their work. Includes filmed interviews with some poets, speaking about their writing lives. You can browse poems by title, poet, theme, poetic terms or form. (UK non-profit organization)
Poetry Explications - 'A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem... This handout reviews some of the important techniques of approaching and writing a poetry explication, and includes parts of two sample explications.' High school and up (University of North Carolina). See also Writing About Poetry (Purdue University).
Poetry Foundation AUDIO - An easily searchable database of poems and poets, which allows you to browse poems by topics (subjects, occasions, holidays), forms, school/period, or region. Also offers podcasts. The Learning page includes a primer on 'How to Read a Poem', plus basic introductions to a variety of well-known poets (search poet's last name + 101, e.g., 'Yeats 101' or 'Angelou 101') and other articles, with separate sections for kids and teens. (Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine)
Poetry Online - Full text of more than 2500 classic and contemporary poems. You can search by keyword or browse by poet's name, poem title, first line of poem, nationality, period, or other criteria. Also provides a glossary, timeline, and writings on poetry, including some criticism (University of Toronto).
Poets.org AUDIO VIDEO - Use the search box to find biographies for hundreds of poets, or to search for poems by keywords or phrases (put quotes around phrases for best results). (Academy of American Poets; site includes advertisements)
Text etc - Advice on the craft and theory of poetry, for the beginner or more experienced poet; sources used are listed at the end of each article. (By C. John Holcombe)
Read Any Great Books Lately?
See also:
Multicultural Literature
Useful Websites: BOOKS, READING, & LIBRARIES
Teen Zone: BOOKS & eLIBRARY
South Plainfield Public Schools Summer Reading Assignments
NoveList and
NoveList K-8: Online readers' advisory tools that help you find new books based on books you've read or topics in which you are interested. If you're using this resource at home, you'll have to enter your library card barcode to begin (EBSCOHost).
Want to take Novelist with you when you're browsing the stacks? You can! EBSCOhost automatically recognizes that you are a mobile device user and displays the correct version for your smartphone or mobile device!
Recommended Reading Lists - The South Plainfield Public Library staff has put together dozens of reading lists for kids, tweens & teens, and adults to help you find books you'll enjoy; new lists are added regularly. The lists cover popular fiction & non-fiction genres/subjects, seasonal & holiday themes, favorite authors & series, and more. If you see a book on one of the lists that interests you, just click on the *CHECK CATALOG* button and request it!
SelectReads eNewsletters - Select Reads newsletters deliver reading recommendations based on your unique personal interests straight to your computer or mobile device. Includes books, audiobooks, dvds, and music! Sign up for a newsletter on one of the popular topics listed under MONTHLY NEWSLETTERS or click on the MY SELECT READS tab to create personalized alerts based on any topic you choose! Click on any book title in the listing for a book description, author bio, and GoodReads reviews. On the AUTHOR CHECK page you can sign up to get email alerts on your favorite authors too! SelectReads includes
Book Recommendations Newsletters for kids & teens!
Blackstone Unlimited Audio (Audiobooks) NEW!: Choose from thousands of audiobooks in every genre, including a huge selection of Children's and Young Adult titles. No holds are needed - all titles are available for instant listening! Use your library card to sign up, and enjoy your audiobooks by downloading the app from the Apple or Google Play stores. You can also listen on desktop computers using the Blackstone website's built-in audio player.
eLibraryNJ: FREE AUDIOBOOKS & eBOOKS - eLibraryNJ offers free audiobooks, ebooks, and magazines! Choose from a great collection of bestsellers, mysteries, classics, biographies, history, and lots more!
PLEASE NOTE: The Overdrive app has been discontinued. New Overdrive users need to use the
Libby app. All users may continue to use, borrow, and open titles from the eLibrary NJ / Overdrive website via a browser.
Freading™ eBook Service: Access to tens of thousands of ebooks in a wide range of genres & subjects! Freading eBooks are available in ePUB format and/or PDF (most titles are available in one of these formats, some are available in both). Includes SparkNotes Study Guides on literature, history, philosophy, film, and more! Freading's free mobile apps are available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire. Ebooks and audiobooks are also available on Hoopla.
Hoopla! digital media: Audiobooks, ebooks, and comics, as well as movies, music, and TV shows to enjoy on your computer, tablet, phone or TV! With no waiting, titles can be streamed immediately, or downloaded to phones or tablets for offline enjoyment later. Hoopla mobile apps are available for Apple devices, Android devices, and Kindle Fire. NOTE: You'll need a valid South Plainfield Library Card to use Hoopla.
LOTE4Kids: An online collection of audio/video picture books in World Languages, created for children to enjoy books and learn language through the magic of storytelling. Thousands of books in over 60 languages from the comfort of home, with English translations to help develop multilingual reading and listening skills.
Classic eBooks from eLibraryNJ - Are all the copies of The Great Gatsby checked out at the library? eLibraryNJ has hundreds of eBook classics, in OverDrive Read and Open EPUB eBook formats; those with GENERIC COVERS are always available. PROJECT GUTENBERG has the oldest and largest collection of free electronic books on the Internet. E-texts of more than 70,000 titles, produced by hundreds of volunteers in several formats including plain text, HTML, EPUB & Kindle (non-profit organization; site includes advertisements). Standard Ebooks 'takes ebooks from sources like Project Gutenberg, formats and typesets them using a carefully designed and professional-grade style manual, fully proofreads and corrects them, and then builds them to create a new edition that takes advantage of state-of-the-art ereader and browser technology'. Available in EPUB, Kindle/azw3, kepub (Kobo), and Advanced EPUB formats. DigiLibraries has a growing collection of free eBooks in many different categories, to download in EPUB, PDF, or Kindle/mobi format. See also Online Books Page [CAUTION: This site includes links to Wikipedia articles] (Penn State University), Internet Archive (a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more), and Best Places to Get Free Kindle Books (2024, Lifewire; part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family).
Classic Short Stories [CAUTION: This site includes links to Wikipedia articles] - E-texts of classic short stories by dozens of writers including Wharton, Twain, Hawthorne, Poe, Mansfield, de Maupassant, Kipling, Saki, Garcia Marquez, Chekhov and others. HTML format. (By B&L Associates; site includes advertisements)
Diversity Literature - See Multicultural Literature, above.
Graphic Novels: No Flying, No Tights - Reviews of graphic novels, with sections for each genre (superheroes, fantasy, sf, historical, mystery, horror, romance, etc.), plus indexes of creators, titles, and publishers, and e-mail updates. Starred titles are particularly recommended for younger teens (by Robin Brenner et al., a group of graphic novel enthusiasts and library staffpeople; site includes advertisements).
Great Schools Booklists - A collection of booklists on themes such as books that celebrate diversity, books made into movies, best series, history, mystery, humor, science, beach reads, read-aloud books, books that build vocabulary, and more. Lists include a short description of each book. Fiction and non-fiction; for grades preK-8. (Non-profit organization; site includes advertisements)
Listen to Genius AUDIO - Hundreds of downloadable audio selections from the world of classic literature, read by award-winning professional narrators. Includes short stories and poetry, as well as excerpts from novels, philosophy, drama, history, travel and more. You can browse audios by author name or subject; most audios are 10 - 20 minutes in length (Redwood Audiobooks). Lit2Go AUDIO is 'a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go, listen to the Mp3 files on your computer, view the text on a webpage and read along as you listen, or print out the stories and poems to make your own book.' Recordings range from short poems to full-length novels (University of South Florida). LibriVox Classic Audio Books AUDIO offers a large collection of free recordings of classic books, to download in mp3 or ogg format. Books are recorded by volunteer readers, so the quality of readings will vary. For many more free audiobooks from Blackstone Audio, eLibraryNJ (Overdrive), Hoopla, and LOTE4Kids, check out our Audiobooks page.
Multicultural Literature - See Multicultural Literature section, above.
Rare Book Room - High-resolution digital images of the rare originals of hundreds of the world's great books, including books by Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Einstein, Darwin and others, Shakespeare Quartos and the First Folio from the Folger Shakespeare Library, Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjaman Franklin, Gutenberg's Bible of 1455, the first printing of the Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. (From publisher Octavo.com)
Recommended Literature Search - Use the customized search on this site to find recommended books about a specific culture, for a specific age group (grades K-12), in a specific genre (i.e., mystery, humor, fantasy, etc.) and/or in a specific language (California Department of Education).
Series and Sequels: Young Adult [NOTE: Page was down when checked 9/24] - A database containing lists of young adult books in series; you can browse by author, title, or genre (under 'Booklists') (Bettendorf Public Library, IA; maintained by volunteers). See also NoveList Reader's Advisory [SP Library card required].
Shakespeare - See Shakespeare, below.
Summer Reading (UC Berkeley) - Annual Summer Reading Lists designed to introduce new students to the intellectual life of a university. Not 'official reading lists' but a wide range of personal recommendations from faculty and staff members at University of California at Berkeley. There is a different theme for each year's list.
Teen Reads - See Young Adult Books, below, and Teen Zone: BOOKS & eLIBRARY links.
'We the People' Collection - Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, the South Plainfield Public Library has acquired a special collection titled 'We The People: Created Equal', focusing on the idea of equality in American history and culture. The collection features English and Spanish versions of the 18 books and AV materials for children, young adults and adults.
Young Adult Books Central - Targeted towards tween and teen readers, this site offers book reviews, author interviews & bios, press releases, industry news and much more on both children's and YA books (Author unknown; site includes advertisements). Young Adults: Themed Booklists has dozens of lists of recommended books for teens on a wide variety of themes, including biography, dragons, fantasy, ethnic heritage, everyday life, science & technology, summer reads, TV tie-ins, and many more (Adlit.org, WETA; site includes advertisements). See also Teen Zone: BOOKS & eLIBRARY links.
Shakespeare
See also:
ARTS & MUSIC: Theater
Bloom's Literary Reference Online: SHAKESPEARE CENTER - Provides an in-depth, multimedia guide to all of William Shakespeare's plays and poems, including a comprehensive overview of every play, performance videos, an extensive library of criticism from the sixteenth century to the present, research and writing advice, and much more, along with a library of material covering Shakespeare's life and times, his contemporaries, his stage, his language, and many other related topics. If you're using this resource at home, you'll have to enter your library card barcode to begin.
Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Folger Digital Texts - You can read high-quality digital Shakespeare texts online, or download them in XML, HTML, PDF, DOC (including or not including line numbers), TXT, and TEI Simple. Free audiobooks and ebooks of Shakespeare are available through Blackstone Audio, eLibrary NJ, & Hoopla [SP Library card required]. Gutenberg's Complete Works of William Shakespeare is an e-text of all the plays and poems in one file, in HTML, EPUB, Kindle, and plain text formats (Project Gutenberg). For advanced searching / navigation of the plays and sonnets, see Open Source Shakespeare (George Mason University). See also Shakespeare's Words, below.
Discover Shakespeare - Background materials on Shakespeare's life, work, and theater, including brief summaries of each of the plays, some with supplementary learning resources. Also includes a separate section on Shakespeare for Kids. (Folger Shakespeare Library)
No Fear Shakespeare & SparkNotes Shakespeare Study Guides - No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with translation into modern English for 20 of Shakespeare's most frequently-read plays. The Study Guides provide summaries, critical analyses, and other study resources for all the plays (SparkNotes/Barnes & Noble, ed. by John Crowther; site includes advertisements). Cliffs Notes Shakespeare Central offer scene-by-scene plot summary & analysis, with related materials, for Shakespeare's commonly-studied plays. Cliffs Notes also includes summary & analysis for all of the Sonnets (2023 Course Hero, Inc.; site includes advertisements).
Royal Shakespeare Company VIDEO - Plot summaries (synopses) for many of the plays, life & times, video clips, and other resources for exploring Shakespeare. The National Theatre's Discover More: Shakespeare VIDEO offers a collection of videos from and about recent Shakespeare productions, exploring performance, characters, production, and more.
Shakespeare FAQ - Answers to commonly-asked questions about Shakespeare's life & work (Folger Library).
Shakespeare on Film - A 'filmography' of all the movie adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, with brief plot outlines, links to reviews, credits, and more; many include a clip or trailer. In chronological order. (IMDB.com; site includes advertisements)
Shakespeare Study Guides - See also Playwrights and Their Plays: Study Guides and No Fear Shakespeare links, above.
Shakespeare Uncovered VIDEO - Companion site to the TV series; you can view full episodes online. 'Each episode reveals the extraordinary world and works of William Shakespeare and the still-potent impact his plays have today. The films combine interviews with actors, directors and scholars, along with visits to key locations, clips from some of the most-celebrated film and television adaptations' and more. Series I examines Macbeth, the Comedies, Richard II, Henry IV & V, Hamlet, and The Tempest. Series II looks at A Midsummer Night' Dream, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew. (PBS; site includes advertisements)
Shakespeare's Words - This companion site for Shakespeare's Words (2002, Penguin Books) offers full text of the plays and poems with synopses and an extensive Glossary, 'allowing you to search for any word or phrase in Shakespeare's works, and in particular to find all instances of all words that can pose a difficulty to the modern reader.' (By linguist David Crystal and actor Ben Crystal). See also Complete Works of William Shakespeare and related links, above.
