Let Us Now Praise Librarians

In the July 21 issue of The New Yorker (yes, the one with the infamous cartoon of the Obamas on the cover), there is a fascinating article about Anne Carroll Moore, who may be considered the first children's librarian, and E.B. White's Stuart Little. While the actual story has nothing really to do with multicultural children's books, it is still a fascinating account of the rise of children's literature as a legitimate art form worthy of criticism, and reading in general an educational pursuit for kids.

The article is a fascinating read-- you should check it out if you have the time. However, one of the points that interested me in particular was Anne Carroll Moore's commitment to multiculturalism in the children's library in the early 1900's:

"Against the prevailing sentiment of the day, she believed that her job was to give "to the child of foreign parentage a feeling of pride in the beautiful things of the country his parents have left." She celebrated the holidays of immigrants (reading Irish poetry aloud, for instance, on St. Patrick's Day) and stocked the shelves with books in French, German, Russian, and Swedish. In 1924, she hired the African-American writer Nella Larsen to head the Children's Room in Harlem."

I actually got a little choked up when I read that passage. Librarians at the forefront of social change! Go Librarians!