Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children

During a time when children weren’t allowed to check out books--or indeed, even be in a library--librarian Anne Carroll Moore thought otherwise. In fact, she had thought otherwise about many things in her life: she didn’t like to sew or stay inside, and when she was expected to get married and

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settle down, she instead attended library school. Moore would later become well-known as one of the first advocates for children’s rights in libraries, and was instrumental in the creation of the enviable Children’s Room in the Central Library in New York City. Certainly, Moore was one of the main reasons that children, who are perhaps reading this book from the library, are able to do so today.

While it is a longer book, the amount of words on each page is typically small, allowing for a challenge for older readers, but still not intimidating younger ones. Readers will be pleasantly surprised to find Miss Moore had Dr. Seuss as entertainment, and she herself had the Belgian King and Queen visit the Children’s Room. The acrylic illustrations are bright, bold, and often span both pages, allowing for readers to be able to fully immerse themselves in the creation of the Children’s Room. The book also includes a small section with more information on Moore, as well as a section on other pioneering female librarians. The story is a stark reminder that despite the unrestrictive freedoms we enjoy in libraries today, it took a strong-willed woman from Maine to help spearhead those freedoms. Highly recommended. Grades 1-4.

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A wonderful introduction to Anne Carroll Moore's pioneering work in children's library services.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I can't say enough. This is a beautiful, touching story of an incredible woman who loved children and books, and fought to bring them together.
Highly recommended for children, book-lovers, and parents everywhere.

Author Jan Pinborough and illustrator Debby Atwell team up in this immensely engaging picture-book biography of Anne Carroll Moore, the early twentieth-century librarian who did so much to establish the field of children's librarianship in the United States. Noting that many libraries didn't have a

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room set aside for children, or a particularly strong collection of books for young readers - many libraries of the late nineteenth-century didn't even allow children on the premises! - Miss Moore set out to change things, once she received her degree from Pratt Institute, in New York City. After her first job at the Pratt Free Library, Moore was offered a job overseeing the children's sections of all thirty-six branches on the New York Public Library. She would go on to design the children's room at the world-famous 42nd Street branch, which opened in 1911. She worked hard to create lists of good books for children, and to create child-friendly programming. Friends with many famous authors and artists, and an author herself, she was deeply involved in the world of children's literature for many decades, and she left her mark on that world. Some may have thought that childhood reading was unimportant, but Miss Moore thought otherwise...

Having read Anne Carroll Moore's 1924 Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story, which featured her famous storytelling Nicholas doll, and which was chosen as a Newbery Honor Book in 1925, and being well aware of her central role in the children's literature scene in New York City for many decades, I was curious to pick up Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children. I was particularly eager to peruse it, moreover, because illustrator Debby Atwell is someone whose own picture-books, from The Thanksgiving Door to Pearl and River, I have found so excellent. All in all, I was pleased with the book, finding the narrative both informative and entertaining, and the artwork, done in Atwell's vintage folk-art style, just lovely. It's both astonishing and heartening to think that one person could have such an influential role in a developing field, and America's children are indeed fortunate that Miss Moore so often did think otherwise, and bucked the prevailing library trends of her day. My only criticism of the book is that no mention is made in the afterword of Moore's somewhat thorny relationship with E.B. White. Surely, in the section about her many author friendships, that could have been included? Its omission felt almost deliberate, and while I understand that every biographer must pick and choose what to focus on, I never like the feeling that less pleasant aspects of any true story are being deliberately occluded. Leaving that one quibble aside, I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for engaging picture-book biographies and/or children's stories about libraries and librarianship. For my part, I finished it with a stronger desire than ever to read some of Moore's adult books, such as Cross-Roads to Childhood, which I own.

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When most people thought girls should stay inside and do quiet activities, Annie Carroll Moore thought otherwise. She liked to play outside and read stories. Children weren’t allowed in libraries, and most people thought reading wasn’t important for girls. When she was older and both her

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parents died from the flu, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, when she found out that libraries were starting to hire female librarians. As a librarian, she encouraged children to check out books and encouraged other librarians to let children read the books. She wrote book reviews and helped people find good books for children to read. She brought in entertainers for the children and helped teach children who were learning English to read. Her whole life, Miss Moore did things people didn’t think she should do and helped change reading in America and around the world.

This interesting book shows some of the history of how children’s books became a part of libraries. A note at the back talks about other women librarians who helped allow children into libraries and more about how Anne Carroll Moore decided to change the world of libraries and books for children. It doesn’t talk about how Moore sometimes discouraged some people from reading books like Stuart Little and the Oz books, but instead it focuses on the contributions she made and how she was willing to do things that were discouraged. The illustrations are playful and fun enough to fit into the subject of creating acceptance for children’s areas in libraries. Readers who love libraries or reading about influential women in history will enjoy this fun book and learning some things about how libraries came to be the way they are today.

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