May/June 2012

I want to thank you for publishing the piece by Hilary Rappaport (“On the Rights of Reading and Girls and Boys”). I really appreciated seeing some of my concerns about the gender divide in reading articulated so well. I have examined my biases related to literature and preferences, and have made adjustments in the way I think about them, as a result of the Guys Read movement. I’m glad for that. But I, too, am troubled by the push to further compartmentalize our young people by dividing the world of books into those for boys and those for girls.

I’m a huge fan of Jon Scieszka, but after hearing him speak at ALA in 2005, I was distressed to the point of writing him a letter, excerpted here:

I was troubled by your speech, especially considering that you spoke after a teenage boy who was gutsy enough to talk about how much he loves being in a book club and reading a huge variety of things. Not all boys (or girls, for that matter) fit the very specific gender roles you outlined. Not all boys like hockey, even if your son does. Not all boys are going to be satisfied with books that are pulled into a separate section for guys, and many girls will be less likely to pick up books if they are labeled as “guy” books.

It seems like there must be ways to validate and highlight a variety of reading while not pigeonholing people into behaving a certain way. Libraries have traditionally been a haven for boys who are not your typical “guy guys” (as James Howe puts it), and it makes me cringe to hear someone as charming and well-respected as you are implying that there is only one type of boy.

Please pass on my thanks to Hilary Rappaport for her column!

Leah Langby
Elk Mound, Wisconsin

The post Letter to the Editor from Leah Langby, July/August 2012 appeared first on The Horn Book.

I am one of the buyers, along with Jewell Stoddard, for the children and teens’ department at the Politics & Prose bookstore. The picture book “Proclamation!” published in the November issue and your editorial (“The Sign on Sendak’s Door”) echo what Jewell and I feel strongly. I just shared the “advertisement on page 57” with the manager of our department, Heidi Powell. She and I are wondering if there will be more from www.thepicturebook.co. Heidi just posted the ad for staff and customers.

Thank you and the staff of The Horn Book for all you contribute to the world of books for children and young adults.

Mary Alice Garber
Washington, D.C.

The post Letter to the Editor from Mary Alice Garber, January/February 2012 appeared first on The Horn Book.

September/October 2011

Barbara Bader’s series of articles on the “second generation” of prominent librarians in the children’s services field (“Virginia Haviland,” January/February 2011; “Augusta Baker,” May/June 2011; “Mildred Batchelder,” September/October 2011) has been enjoyable to read. For the small number of us who worked with these librarians or knew them, Bader stirs up some especially fine memories. Her account of Mildred Batchelder’s antipathy to the legendary Anne Carroll Moore was personally entertaining since Mildred once gave me a similar earful about Moore. At the time she was recently retired but still always interested in those of us coming along in the field.

Bader notes Batchelder’s reference to Moore as a “small figure” and goes on to note that the two women were similar in many ways. She doesn’t note the matter of similarity in size, though she quotes Dorothy Broderick’s first meeting with a “pert little lady” named Mildred Batchelder. Ah, yes! These two were both diminutive in physical stature and very large in influence. Furthermore, these attributes were shared by several notable women in the first and second generation of leaders in children’s librarianship, including Virginia Haviland.

It occurred to me long ago that there was a whole pantheon of tiny, prominent women among these early leaders. Charlemae Rollins of Chicago, honored annually at the ALSC president’s program, was a widely known contemporary of Augusta Baker’s, sharing both her early championship of books reflecting African American experience and her passion for storytelling. Tiny Charlemae was a magnificent figure as a storyteller! Zena Sutherland, also of Chicago and long known as a teacher and critic, gave us the review journal The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books and then revised several editions of that hefty textbook, Children and Books, first created by May Hill Arbuthnot. Small Zena was firm, thoughtful, and articulate in her children’s book views. (Take it from a much larger librarian who once had to argue with her as a paired speaker at an ALA conference program on nonfiction.) Another notable and small librarian/teacher/critic was Ethel Heins, once editor of The Horn Book. Also strong and passionate in her views, Ethel brought a deep, wide book knowledge and a welcome sense of humor in urging us to high standards in the creation and selection of books for children.

Two other diminutive women played significant roles in my own career. Mae Durham joined the faculty of the graduate library school at UC–Berkeley, teaching the one all-purpose course in children’s literature and library services the year I was a student there. Steeped in the New York Public Library tradition of Anne Carroll Moore, Mae sent a significant number of her students across the country to start their careers, actively engaging herself in regional and national arenas of children’s services. Another tiny librarian of long commitment in these areas was the children’s librarian of my own early days as a library user, Winifred Ragsdale. I didn’t know her well then, but always loved it that she never interfered with a child’s desire to just be allowed solitary personal time in her library. Many years into my professional career, I appointed her to a committee when I served as president of ALSC. Subsequently, she chaired a program committee that invited me to be a keynote speaker at the Pacific Rim Conference on Children’s Literature, held in Los Angeles in 1986. What fun I had telling her I had been a first-grade child she had served in her first job as a children’s librarian!

I suspect other readers have tales of small but mighty leaders in children’s librarianship. At just five feet—a bit less or a bit more—they really were profound in their influence. I suppose one might explore the sociological or psychological ramifications of all this, though I haven’t been tempted to try. Their size may have been immaterial, but it has always intrigued me that there were quite a few of them awhile back, whereas we hardly ever see that particular feature in the subsequent generations of leaders of children’s librarianship.

Margaret Bush
Boston, Massachusetts

The post Letter to the Editor from Margaret Bush, January/February 2012 appeared first on The Horn Book.

1 June, 1965

Dear Ruth:

I hope it’s permissible for an author to spend an inordinate number of hours in gleeful pride (or prideful glee?) over a  review in THE HORN BOOK. In any case, that’s what I’ve been doing.

Well, needless to say I’m delighted you liked THE BLACK CAULDRON. Seriously delighted, for I value your opinion and it does indeed make me feel encouraged about the project — a rare and wonderful sensation!

But patience! The story still isn’t all told!

All best wishes,

[signed: Lloyd]

The post Lloyd Alexander Letter to Ruth Hill Viguers (June 1, 1965) appeared first on The Horn Book.