Literature On the Web

A Resource list for English Literature students.

One of the assignments I had this month for my collection development course in library science grad school was to compile a list of Internet resources for students. I chose to look for literature websites, databases, and sites, since that is one of my chief interests. I wanted to share what I found here on the blog, since I was really quite amazed at the wealth. Thinking back to when I was an English major in the early 80s, I just can not believe what a difference there is in what is easily available today. It's just phenomenal!

E-book collections: (Quoted text comes directly from the linked websites)

Alex Catalog of Electronic Texts: "This is a collection of public domain and open access documents with a focus on American and English literature as well as Western philosophy."

Digital Book Index: "This index is intended as a "Meta-index" for most major eBook sites, along with thousands of smaller specialized sites."

Electronic Texts on the Internet: This is an extensive list from RefDesk.com of many full text literature sites on the Internet. It includes links to many of the other sites I have referenced here. From Beowulf to Kafka, the Constitution to Project Muse, Elements of Style, Library of Congress and World Lecture Hall.

International Children's Digital Library: Wide variety of full text & illustrated children's books to be read/listened to online. New supporters & contributors are welcome.

Internet Public Library: "A wide variety of free, full-text sources for literature on the web."

Million Books Project: Collection of scanned texts, Not extensive. Browse by subject.

The Online Books Page: "Listing over 35,000 free books on the Web - Updated Friday, June 19, 2009 "

Project Gutenberg: "There are nearly 30,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog. A grand total of over 100,000 titles are available at Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources."

Internet sites & search engines:

Bartleby.com: Great books, authors, literary encyclopedias online.

Columbia University Press: Database of full text poetry, e-books, gazetteer of the world, and other electronically published resources.

Gale's Literary Index " a master index to the major literature products published by Gale. It combines and cross-references over 165,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and listings for over 215,000 titles into one source."

Google Books: Search engine for full text and citations of thousands of books and magazines, in co-operation with authors, publishers & libraries.

Google Scholar: "provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations."

Kidlitosphere Central: "strives to provide a passage to the wonderful variety of resources available from the society of bloggers in children's and young adult literature."

LibraryThing: catalog your books, read reviews of books, find author profiles, & make literary connections. "World's largest book club."

New York Times book reviews online.

Poets.org: website of the American Academy of Poets. Poem, biographies, literary essays.

Poetry Foundation: "The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture."

Scholar's Guide to the WWW: extensive list of helpful links on every scholarly subject.

WWW Virtual Library: Index to Open Access (free) sites for encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, biographies and other reference works.

Yahoo Directory for Literature: Links to all things literature, bookish, author-related, social networking and publishing on the web.

Abecedarian Poem

Blessed are the Broken-Hearted

Another
beatitude
called out;
discovered
even, through
faith.
Give
heed.
I
just
know it is
love that
moves us.
Not
only
puzzles us,
quite
radically
saves us.
Truly
unruly,
verily, reliably,
while
x-ing the street -
you are
zapped!

- Andromeda Jazmon

The Monday Poetry Stretch this week at Miss Rumphius Effect was to write an abecedarian poem. I've enjjoyed this form ever since I read Robert Pinksy's Every Body Can Die (click & scroll down to read it). One of my ambitions is to write a really killer ABC poem. Pinsky's poem is a little different than this form, as every word in the poem follows the alphabet sequence, and we are just doing the first word in the line alphabetically, but it is a similar form.

Check out the other Poetry Stretch Results here, and visit the Friday Poetry Round up being hosted by Kelly Herold at Crossover. Enjoy your summer weekend!

Sold

by Patricia McCormick. Hyperion, 2006. Library copy. Lakshmi, a 13 year old girl living with her family in a mountain village in Nepal, is spunky and full of hopeful expectation. Her step-father is a gambler who spends what little money she and her mother can scrap together sewing and growing cucumbers, but still Lakshmi thinks she can turn things around and get the family hut a new tin roof if only the drought didn't end in a flood. The family is desperately poor but Lakshmi loves her life in the mountains. She has no concept of what life might be like down in the valley. Everything changes when her father looses bad at cards and sells her in order to pay his debts. At first Lakshmi thinks she is just going away to work in the city as a maid for a rich woman. That may be what her father really believes; we are not sure. But the woman who pays him and leads Lakshmi down the mountain is actually a broker for a man who sells her to a brothel across the border in India.

The journey, first by foot down the mountain and through many villages, and then by train across the border and into Calcutta, is both shocking and overwhelming for Lakshmi. There is no comparison to the horror and desperation she finds when at last she reaches her new life in the "Happiness House". She is beaten, starved, drugged, terrorized, imprisoned and tortured into accepting her lot. Somehow she manages to hang onto the simple truth her mother taught her: "To endure is to triumph". She finds ways to make friendships with the other girls and women caught up in the nightmare. She sees beauty and tenderness and does not give up hope. She schemes to find ways to save up the money they tell her she owes, even though the record book never shows any credit for her work. After over a year, when she begins to realize the death trap she is in, she looks outside for another way of escape.

After the gruesome horror of the main part of this book it is a relief to get to the ending, which is hopeful. The book itself is based on real events that are happening at this moment. The author's note at the end of the book tells us that each year nearly 12,000 Nepali girls are sold by their families. She tells us that the U.S. State department estimates that "nearly half a million children are trafficked ... annually." She traveled to India and Nepal in researching the book, tracing the steps of the young girls brought from remote villages to Calcutta, and interviewed aid workers who get them out of the net. She also met and talked with survivors like Lakshmi. She tells us that there are women who have survived this brutality that now travel the villages and patrol the border seeking to share their stories and prevent more girls from being taken. She writes in their honor.

Sold is not an easy book to read, although I finished it in one sitting. It is written in free verse with strong imagery that is both nuanced and sharp. It's one of those books you never forget, and that you wish were just fiction. Highly recommended for adults and teens, and a good book club pick.

Other reviews:

Readergirlz feature on the book & author chat: ideas for book discussions, music playlist & how to support anti-slavery action (scroll down the page for more).
Teenreads.com
BookBrowse (with published reviews)
Maw Books blog
PaperTigers

Chains

by Laurie Halse Anderson. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2008. Isabel is a twelve year old African American girl in slavery in Rhode Island in 1776. When her mistress dies she expects to be freed, since it is in her mistress's will. Unfortunately the heir is a man who wants to sell her and her little sister, 5 year old Ruth, in auction. He has no patience for her claims and the lawyer with the papers has left the state. The doctor who knows Isabel and her mistress does nothing to help her. They are sold in a tavern and end up with a cruel woman and her business-minded husband in New York City. In the summer and fall of 1776 NYC is in the middle of British occupation in the Revolutionary war. Isabel is smart and kind-hearted, and continues to hold on to hope even in the face of unbelievable cruelty and injustice. As she listens and watches the Rebels and the Loyalists she befriends a young man, freed from slavery by joining the Rebel army, who is then captured and imprisoned. She moves from naive innocence to revolutionary thoughts of her own. The ending is a cliff-hanger making me want to call Laurie up and ask how her novel writing is going. Can't wait for the sequel!

Chains is beautifully and expertly written, as all of Laurie Halse Anderson's books are. I hung on every word of this book but forced myself to spread it out over several nights instead of tearing through it in one sitting. I kept thinking back to reading Octavian Nothing and comparing the two. I almost expected Isabel to run into Octavian. I'm sure they would have a lot to talk about and could help each other out.

I was also thinking back to the books I read in middle school and high school about the Revolution. We had nothing from an African American perspective, as far as I can remember. I think I read Johnny Tremain. Don't think there were any African Americans in that book, although Anderson tell us that probably 20% of the population of the colonies was Black. Can you think of anything else written for Young Adults about the Revolution, pre-1980s? How differently I understand the issues and complexity now that I have seen it through the eyes of African American young people caught up in the struggle. Which side would offer more freedom, more dignity, more humanity? The British or the Rebels? Neither side seemed to care much about anything but their own economic profits, actually. I don't think they told it to us that way in history class. What do you think?

Check out Anderson's website here, where you can read her blog more about her books, see reviews, a teacher's guide, and hear a music playlist.

June 16 Haiku

lunch on the porch
listening to boys chatter;
roses on the fence

- Andromeda Jazmon

48 Hour Book Challenge final update

My final report for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge: I started at 4 pm on Friday and finished at 4 pm Sunday. I put in a total of 16 hours in reading and blogging about the books, with another 2.5 hours commenting on other bloggers doing the challenge. Total time: 18.5 hours and 4.5 books (the first book I read I was already halfway through when I started.)

I am not competitive for the prizes, but I hope to have raised a lot of money for the Bridget Zinn medical fund and I beat my personal best from 2007, when I only managed 14 hours. (I didn't do it last year.)

Also I noted with sadness and sweetness that Dewey commented on my challenge results post back in 2007. I miss her still.

For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on these posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!

So far the comment tally is at 31. You still have time to comment on these posts and I will count them for the donation up until midnight on Monday. I will be sending a check to Bridget Zinn's medical fund for the total number of book challenge post comments that I receive before midnight.

48 Hour Reading Challenge Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'm offering a prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

Keeping Corner #48hbc

by Kashimira Sheth. Hyperion, 2007. Leela is a twelve year old girl living with her family in Gujarat, India in 1918. She was engaged at the age of two and married at nine, but hasn't moved to her husband's family household yet. She is a person of the high Brahman caste, so she is pampered and endulged by her parents with pretty clothes, sweets, and jewlery.

She lives a happy life and is generally kind though frivilous and carefree. She is planning to leave school and go to live in her husband's household soon when he unexpectedly dies from a poisonous snake bite. Suddenly Leela is a widow and must "sit corner" for a year of mourning. That means, among other things, that she can not leave the house, can't wear any jewlery at all, must wear only simple brown clothes and has her hair shaved off to the scalp. She will never be allowed to marry anyone else and will live as an outcast widow the rest of her life. Her whole family plunges into mourning.

Leela has an older brother who lives in the big city and has so far resisted his parents urging to find a wife. He is studying Gandhi's teaching and wants change to come to India. Leela's father and uncles are also learning from Gandhi and participate in the "satyagrah" or peaceful resistance organized to protest the English rule and unfair taxes against the farmers during drought. Leela's brother persuades the local grammar school principal, Saviben, a modern thinking and well educated young woman, to come and tutor Leela so she can continue her education. Over the course of the year Leela gradually starts to shift her focus from her own misery to the larger world, as she reads the paper for homework and discusses the writings of Narmad and Gandhi.

I found Keeping Corner to be fascinating and very well written. The details about daily life, the delights of the brightly colored silk saris and tempting descriptions of sweets during festivals, and the crushing burden of traditional customs holding the people down are expertly described. The changes and growth that Leela and her family achieve in the year of mourning are astounding. For example, in the opening chapter Leela is on her way to a local festival and cunningly encourages her mother to persuade her father to allow them to take the ox cart into town, so that her sari won't get dusty in the walk. By the end of the book her mother is silenced on the topic of continuing her daughter's education, but Leela herself has the education, logical thinking skills and persuasive ability to convince her stubborn, wary father to allow her to travel to the big city to continue her education at boarding school. From obsession on her appearance and amusing distractions to the serious commitment to taking her future into her own hands Leela comes of age in these pages.

This book is highly recommended for middle and high school students studying early 20th century history, India, Gandhi, or peaceful resistance. Use it in a book group on with the Quaker testimony of Peace, Integrity, or Community.

This is my fifth book read for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge.

I am putting up posts on all the books I read. For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on those posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!

So far the comment tally is at 31. You still have time to comment on these posts and I will count them for the donnation up until midnight on Monday. I will be sending a check to Bridget Zinn's medical fund for the total number of book challenge post comments made by midnight.

48 Hour Reading Challenge Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'm offering a prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree #48hrc

by Lauren Tarshis. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2007. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others I've read so far this weekend. Emma Jean has a very intelligent, logical mind but she doesn't understand the other 13 year olds in her middle school. She usually leaves them a wide berth, preferring her own routines and interests, until she finds a nice girl named Colleen crying in the girl's room. Emma Jean decides to try to help her out and all sorts of confusion ensues. Emma Jean struggles to learn to connect with others and she clearly is tender-hearted and good-intentioned. I found her to be a bit too dry and technical, however. She reminded me of Data from Star Trek, The Next Generation, but she didn't have his charm and personality. Others have found this book to be more enjoyable. Have you read it yet?

This is my fourth book read for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge. I've put in 3 hours on Friday, and another 9 on Saturday. I am going to spend a little more time tonight reading blogs about the challenge.

I am putting up short posts on all the books I read. For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on those posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!

48 Hour Reading Challenge Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'm offering a prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

Ask Me No Questions #48hbc

by Marina Budhos. Atheneum Books, 2006. Nadira and her family are illegal aliens from Bangaladesh in post-9/11 New Jersey. After the government starts a registration program aimed at all males from Muslim countries, her family flees to the Canadian boarder in terror. They are afraid the father will be deported or imprisoned. They are rejected by the Canadians at the boarder, and her father is taken into custody. Naidra and her sister drive back to NJ and try to pretend to live a normal life while their mother lives in Vermont in a shelter, waiting for their father's case to come to a hearing.

It was strange and uncomfortable for me to read this riveting book directly after reading a book on the Holocaust and another one on the human rights violations, disappearances and tortures in Chile in the 1980s. All three books are about young people dealing with displacement, loss of one's home country, government mistreatment, and challenging moral choices. Ask Me No Questions does a good job of showing the fear and confusion of a Bangladeshi family that has tried to do their best to become citizens but has made some poor choices about how to do that. They have nothing to do with terrorists and are baffled about why they are caught up in the government crackdown. Nadira feels helpless and confused but she is thrust into a situation where she must act to try to save her father and prove his innocence. There is also a lot of tension between Naidra and her older sister, which makes the girls very complex and human characters. This book read quickly and was full of excitement and interesting details. I would highly recommend it to middle school and high school kids.

This is my third book read for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge.

A Lucky Child #24hbc

by Thomas Burgenthal. Little, Brown & Co., 2009. I won a copy of this book from Ali in the Diversity Rocks Challenge. It was a quick read but effected me deeply. Thomas Burgenthal is a Holocaust survivor that grew up to become a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He tells his story in The Lucky Child in simple, direct language but the truths he portrays are extraordinary.

You've heard the story before; but still it shocks one into silence, or outrage. Not only does he tell of the horrific life in concentration camps as a child, which he survived, but he also tells of the six years he lived reunited with his mother in Germany after the war was over. In spite of the brutality shown to him, his family and his friends, he was able to maintain his sense of humanity and respect for others. He continued to find and cherish kindness and compassion, and to believe in the good in other people. This book is a must read. It would make a great book group discussion book for high school, college, and adult groups.

This is my second book read for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge. I've put in 3 hours on Friday, and another 2.5 hours so far on Saturday morning. I have to take the boys to sports for the rest of the morning but I will be putting in some more reading hours this afternoon and evening.

I am going to be putting up short posts on all the books I read. For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on those posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!

48 Hour Reading Challenge Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'm offering a prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Starting NOW! #48hbc

Starting my weekend of reading off with Lyn Miller-Lachmann's gringolandia. I am about halfway through and expect to finish it tonight. So far I really like the characters, which are drawn complex and very human. I am also fascinated with what I am learning about Chile. From the author's website:

Daniel’s father used to play soccer, dance the cueca, and drive his kids to school in a beat-up taxi…while publishing an underground newspaper that exposed Chile’s military regime.

After Papá’s arrest in 1980, Daniel’s family fled to Wisconsin. Now Daniel has a new life, playing lead guitar in a rock band and dating Courtney, a minister’s daughter.

When his father is released and rejoins the family, Daniel sees what five years of prison and torture in a brutal police state have done. Papá is partially paralyzed, haunted by nightmares, and bitter about exile in “Gringolandia.” Daniel worries that Courtney’s scheme to start a human rights newspaper could bring back Papá’s past and drive him further into alcohol abuse and self-destruction. Daniel dreams of a real father-son relationship, but he may have to give up everything to save his papá’s life.

This powerful coming-of-age story portrays an immigrant teen’s struggle to reach his tortured father and find his place in the world.

This is my first post for the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge tonight. Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'd like to add one more prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

I am going to be putting up short posts on all the books I read. For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on those posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!

55th Wedding Anniversary List Poem

It's my parents 55th wedding anniversary today. They have five children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. They've done infant foster care for the past 12 years and welcomed 23 babies into their home. I can't think of a suitable gift for them. I've written them a list poem to celebrate.



Things I've Learned from My Parents in Their 55 Years of Marriage:

Keep up with the car and it will last a long time.
Keep candles on the breakfast table.
Everyone comes home for dinner.
Pick flowers and enjoy them.
Practice hospitality.
Have chocolate.

Liquor store boxes are good when you move.
Keep a comfy chair next to the bookcase.
There is always room for more books.
Take turns washing the dishes.
Moderation in all things.
Have extra chairs.

Remember the buddy system.
Forgive each other every day.
Bring home surprises.
Go outside and play.
Stick together.
Write often.

- Andromeda Jazmon

The Friday Poetry Roundup is at Sara's blog Read Write Believe today. Enjoy!

On another note, I am starting the 4th annual Mother Reader 49 Hour Reading Challenge tonight. Rules are here, Prizes are listed here, and Starting Line is here. I'd like to add one more prize: I will donate a framed 5x7 print of one of my favorite photos and original haiku to the person who raises the most money for a Greater Good cause.

I have several of Young Adult novels that I have had on my TBR pile for awhile and I am looking forward to digging in. To make it even more interesting for everyone this year Pam has added a Greater Good component. I am going to be putting up short posts on all the books I read. For every unique, meaningful comment I receive on those posts I will donate $1 to Bridget Zinn's medical fund. Bridget is a Young Adult author, librarian and book blogger who is in expensive cancer treatment. Many kidlit bloggers have come together to offer support for her and I am happy to join in. If you can come by this weekend and comment on the books I'm reading you can be part of that too. If you are doing the 48 Hour Reading challenge let me know and I'll come and follow you too!