Uof I offers online guide for buying children's books

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Thousands of children's books are published in the United States each year so finding the perfect book for that favorite niece or nephew won't be easy. It wouldn't hurt to have some professional help.

With that in mind, the experts at the Center for Children's Books at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created an online guide to help make choosing the right gift easier.

"The books people buy for kids aren't necessarily the same books kids enjoy," explained Deborah Stevenson, editor of the 20-page guide, which lists about 250 books split up by age group.

All the books have been reviewed by children's literature experts at the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, an arm of the University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library Science and Information. The Bulletin, published 11 times a year, provides reviews and recommendations for school and public librarians.

The guide provides a way to extend some of the center's expertise to the public, said Stevenson, who also edits the Bulletin.

"It really is just donating a little extra time to put this together so we can give people a little more information when they're walking into a bookstore," Stevenson said.

The New York Times publishes a best-seller list for children's books, and bookstores often post lists of award-winning titles, but those don't always include descriptions.

The Center for Children's Books' guide includes the list price and a brief description of each book, as well the appropriate age range -- young children under six, ages 6-9, ages 9-11, and older children, ages 12-18.

"For my 10-year-old, we were able to find some books that there wasn't much hype about that turned out to be real good," said Jill St. Onge, a mother of two from a Minneapolis suburb who learned of the guide from a mothers' group. "There's a lot of [books] I hadn't heard of before."

Books chosen for the guide come from a variety of genres. Some are somber, dealing with issues such as religious events, and others are "things that are just fun if you're the great, funny uncle and you want to give something slightly irreverent," Stevenson said.

"One of the things I do think about is what books would be fun to give as well as fun to get," she said.

The Center for Children's Books' third online edition of "Guide Book for Gift Books" -- which can be downloaded for $3.50 at the center's Web site, www.lis.uiuc.edu/giftbooks/ -- includes author, title, publisher and list price, as well as the description.

Some of the titles listed in this year's guide, all published in 2004:

--"Actual Size," by Steve Jenkins. A picture book that allows readers to view almost 20 different creatures, or parts of them, at their actual size. For readers ages 6-8.

--"An Elephant in the Backyard," by Richard Sobol. The picture story of a domesticated elephant in Thailand. For young children.

--"I, Jack," by Patricia Finney. A story narrated in first person by a lovable Labrador. For readers 9-11 years old.

On the Net

The Center for Children's Books: www.lis.uiuc.edu/~ccb/