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Hello & Welcome!  You have arrived at a website created by a K-12 teacher-librarian who lives and works in rural, southern Iowa.

In my neck of the woods, the turkey hunting is good but the deer hunting is even better.  Ever heard of the famous world-record Lovstuen buck? If not, you should look it up. This monster of a white-tail buck with its massive, non-typical rack was taken down by a 16-year old during a youth hunting season within a few miles of where I live.  For that hunter's family, and for so many others in these parts, hunting isn't just a hobby -- it's a way of life, passed down from generation to generation.  Consequently, in the schools I work at there are many youth who take an interest in hunting.  

The bibliographies you find on this website were born out of my concern at the the small number of books that feature hunting within my school library collections contrasted with the larger number of students who are interested in hunting.  When I started my search for more hunting books to purchase, I became concerned that there seemed to be a lack of books that portrayed hunting positively, and I found that I was not alone in my concern. Requests from family members, educators, and librarians for youth hunting stories are in abundance on the Internet, yet there was no comprehensive list of such hunting books to be found.  So I set out to fill that gap: to compile a comprehensive bibliography of books for youth that feature hunters or hunting and that would also identify how the sport and its participants are portrayed in those books.  

Although I call my project a comprehensive bibliography, it does have its limitations; these can be found on the Project Parameters page of this website and are important to read about so you will understand the scope of my project.  Also provided for you is a guide to codes and abbreviations used in the annotated bibliography.  There are three sections in my comprehensive bibliography: an annotated bibliography of chapter books, an annotated bibliography of picture books, and a supplementary bibliography of titles I initially collected but did not further analyze.  

THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES ON THIS WEBSITE DO NOT APPEAR IN THEIR ENTIRE FORM.  They only include bibliographic information, interest level, and notes about the hunting aspects of each title. 

FOR THE COMPLETE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES, DOWNLOAD THE 'CHAPTER 4' PDF AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.  Librarians, especially, will be interested in this version because it contains book review information for each title, including review sources and dates, awards, professional selection tools in which titles are listed, and whether a title has received at least one favorable recommendation in a professional review source.

This research project was conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for my Master of Arts degree in School Library Studies at the University of Northern Iowa.  My entire paper is also available for download at the bottom of this page.  Many thanks go to my advisor Karla Krueger for her relentless assistance, guidance, and revisions; to Dr. Jean Donham for her advice and revisions; and to my family for their patience as I completed this project.  

Happy Hunting / Happy Reading!

~Leann Seddon

K-12 Teacher Librarian

Albia CSD & Moravia CSD