Thus, I did an initial search using the ERIC database and the terms "award-winning" AND "children and young adult" AND "literature."
This initial search using the ERIC advanced keyword search resulted in 14 documents.
To build my citation pearl growing search, I used the first hit -- "The Newbery/Printz Companion: Booktalk and Related Materials for Award Winners and Honor Books" -- to glean additional and more specific search terms and keywords.
I grew my second search using the keywords "adolescent literature" and "book* N3 award*" from the document retrieved from the initial search. I incorporated the words found in Descriptor part of the document information. Furthermore, I incorporated truncation with the words "book" and "award," so that the search would include the plural forms of these terms, too. I also used the proximity function so that the words 'book' and 'award' would be found within three words of one another.
The second search resulted in 21 documents.
There were many relevant hits from this search. I looked more closely at the fifth document, "Selecting and Promoting Young Adult and Children's Award-Winning Books: What This Means for Publishers, Authors, Teachers, Librarians, and the Consumer." This document was highly relevant as it provides a great deal of information on young adult and children's books, specifically award-winning books, while also meshing information and ideas related to how school librarians can incorporate these titles into their libraries.
I enjoyed composing the Citation Pearl Growing search strategy because it allowed me to combine my own natural language with key terms provided by the database. I appreciate how this search “built” upon a previous search, thereby becoming more specific and relevant almost immediately. I liked being able to adjust my search and search terms by using results that had previously been retrieved from another search.
