Pistes d'exploration

Examine some teacher-selected images of children’s libraries around the world. Discuss the important features. Compare these libraries to ones you have visited.

Notice the variety of picture and text layouts throughout the story. Discuss the importance of these design choices.

Write a modern-day library pledge that could be used at your school or community library.

Write a day-in-the-life journal entry as Nicholas Knickerbocker, incorporating details from the story.

Make a timeline of Miss Moore’s story. Add the dates of specific events.

Draw a character map for Miss Moore.

Make a mind map of the evolution of libraries. Which of these characteristics are present in your school or city library? Which elements would you like to see added to your library?

Design a new school library. Draw a floor plan and list the furniture and elements to be featured. Explore the costs. Write a new code of conduct. Present your ideas.

Library Lion, The Library, Miss Brooks Loves Books! (And I Don't)

Mots-clés

Biography , Anne Carroll Moore , children's rights , librarians , libraries , literacy , women

Commentaire descriptif

Today, libraries across the United States house thousands of books for young readers thanks to the hard work and determination of Anne Carroll Moore. This is the story of the visionary who established the first children’s reading room in the New York Public Library: a bright room filled with artwork, window seats, child-sized furnishings and borrowing privileges for “the very best readers’ books she could find.” Simple language chronicles Moore’s years from youth to retirement, when she travelled the country sharing her ideas. Throughout the story, repetition of “But Annie thought otherwise” charmingly establishes her sometimes contrary and avant-garde nature. Colourful acrylic artwork has a naive, folk-art feel and adds a playfulness that is entirely in keeping with the gutsy nature of the protagonist. Readers will be surprised to learn that the modern library services they take for granted all started with the pioneering ideas of this 19th-century woman. A brief endnote provides more information about Moore, a pair of vintage photographs and the names of other trailblazing librarians who helped create magical library spaces for readers.