Can you imagine a world where children were not allowed into libraries so they would be protected from the morally corrupting influence of novels? Until Anne Carroll Moore (b. 1871), the subject of this fascinating "New Yorker" article, took on the task of creating a children's library for New York City in 1895, you had to be 14 years old and a boy to get in to the Astor Library. As I look around me at the very busy North Branch on a summer afternoon, I find it hard to believe that kids were denied this wonderful experience. Moore's influence turned out to be a good thing, of course, but there were aspects of her story that are almost as surprising as the experts' opinions of children's needs and limitations. For one, if she didn't like a book, that was it. She would deem a book unsuitable with a terse,"Not recommended for purchase by an expert," noted in the margin of a publisher's catalog. Unfortunately, she disapproved of E. B. White's Stuart Little.
Read on for a very interesting story on libraries and the world of children's literature:
click here
Ciao. Barb
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