New York librarian, Anne Carroll Moore, played a huge role in making libraries more accessible and inviting to children, working class kids in particular. Within just a few years after she created a kids' space at the main branch of New York Public Library, over 1/3 of the volumes being loaned out by the system’s branch libraries were books for kids. And similar rooms began to appear in libraries around the world.
But she also had a very specific idea of what made good children's literature, and she shared her recommendations to help other librarians decide what to buy. Her taste ran to 'once upon a time' style stories, stories often set in far-away places that had little to do with contemporary lives. Her opinions were so influential that the popular book Goodnight Moon could not be found on the shelves of the New York Public Library system for decades, until the early 1970s.
Meanwhile, just down the street there was a progressive school called Bank Street. Teachers there, including one named Margaret Wise Brown, who went on to write Goodnight Moon, had a vision for change.
Article/podcast: Goodnight Nobody
|
|
