What Would the Library Ladies Say?

When the Newbery Medal winner was announced today at the ALA Conference in Denver, some of the venerable ladies like Anne Carroll Moore who started children's services in public libraries might have turned in their graves. The medal went to Neil Gaiman for his spooky Grave Yard Book, the story of a boy named Nobody who was raised by ghosts. The protective librarians of a century ago might have wanted to shield children from such frightening territory populated by vampires and ghosts. Today's librarians have more faith in the essential toughness of children who have already made the book a bestseller. Gaiman's background in writing comic books and movie scripts is also a departure from the traditional literature-based authors of the past. Despite the changes in approach, though, we shouldn't predict too confidently about what our departed colleagues might have thought. They were strong, assertive women who battled for the right of children to choose their own reading, so perhaps they would have cheered the honoring of an inventive new tale to add to our stock of enticing books for children.