2010 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Had Performed Some Such Heroic Deed

t is a great honor to be standing here all his work within ALSC on behalf of before you to deliver the 2010 May Hill children’s librarians, children, and books. IArbuthnot Lecture. When Arbuthnot Chair Kristi Jemtegaard first called me As soon as I got the news that Riverside way back in August of 2008 to give me County Library System had been selected the news, her first words after identifying as the host site, I contacted Mark to 2010 herself were, “I bet you can guess why I’m find out why, exactly, they had applied calling.” to host a lecture that I would write and May Hill deliver. He told me that it was due to my Actually, I couldn’t. The only thing I could work in multicultural literature, since the think of was that it had something to do community here is a diverse one, and Arbuthnot with the 2009 Arbuthnot Lecture, hosted they, too, are passionate about books that by the Langston Hughes Library at the reflect that diversity. I was very happy Honor Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, to hear this from Mark because—if you because I had written a letter of sup- don’t know it by now you will within the port for Theresa Venable and her wonder- hour—multicultural literature is my pas- Lecture ful committee who had submitted what sion, and I love to talk about it. turned out to be the winning applica- Can Children’s Books tion. I actually thought that Kristi might I told Mark that I was thinking of using have a question about the feasibility of a the title “Why Multicultural Literature Save the World? shuttle bus from the Knoxville Airport to Matters.” There was a little silence on the farm. his end of the phone, and then he told Advocates for me he’d like to run it by his Planning But Kristi quickly reminded me that, Committee and he came back to me a Diversity in no, she was actually chair of the 2010 few weeks later with an alternative title Children’s Books committee, not the one that had chosen that they had agreed on. They wanted Walter Dean Myers for this honor the year something with a bit more punch. How and Libraries before. And she was calling to inform about “Can Children’s Books Save the me that I had been selected as the 2010 World?” I thought about it for a few days lecturer. That was a lot to take in. And and decided I could take that on. Kathleen T. Horning then the next thing she told me was that I would have to keep this news a secret It’s a rather grand title, perhaps, that con- until January of 2009. jures up images of children’s authors and artists in capes with superpowers, flying So before I begin my speech, I’d like to in to save the day. But when you think thank Kristi Jemtegaard, and the mem- about it, isn’t that why we’re all here, bers of the 2010 Arbuthnot Committee those of us who care about children and with whom she worked—Marian children’s books? Creamer, Peter Howard, Joyce Laoisa, and Lauren Liang—for giving me this great I have found over the years that children’s honor, and for selecting the Riverside librarians have an almost missionary-like County Library System as the host. It’s zeal about getting books into the hands been a pleasure working with Mark of children. I think it’s because we hear Smith, whom I’ve known for several years so many stories in our profession about for his amazing work with El día de los how a book changed someone’s life. Just niños / El día de los libros, the annual a few weeks ago, for example, I was hav- celebration of family literacy, created by ing dinner with a group of people, seated the author and advocate Pat Mora and next to a seventy-four-year-old woman members of REFORMA and administered I had never met. She had just returned by ALA’s Association for Library Service to from serving in the Peace Corps in Peru, Children. Mark’s commitment to diver- so I immediately knew I was in for some sity and to serving all families in his com- interesting conversation. Kathleen T. Horning is Director of the munity is an inspiration. The members of Cooperative Children’s Book Center the local planning committee have also When she asked me what I did for a liv- at the University of Wisconsin-Madison been very helpful in making this hap- ing and I told her I was a librarian, she and a past president of ALSC. She pen. I’d also like to thank everyone in the said quite soberly, “A librarian saved my delivered this lecture May 13, 2010 at ALSC office, most especially Executive life.” Well, I was thinking that maybe a the University of California Riverside Director Aimee Strittmatter, as well as librarian had rescued her from falling off Extension Center. ALSC President Thom Barthelmess, for a mountainside in the Andes, perhaps, or 8 Winter 2010 • Children and Libraries 2010 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture had performed some such heroic deed. “Can Children’s Books Save the World? . It’s a But then she elaborated. rather grand title, perhaps, that conjures up images “I grew up in rural Montana, and there was nothing for miles around. of children’s authors and artists in capes with But there was a bookmobile that came every two weeks, and the superpowers, flying in to save the day. But when you librarian would bring me new books think about it, isn’t that why we’re all here, those of to read. I used to ride out into the countryside on my horse, far away us who care about children and children’s books?” from home, and I would just lie on top of my horse and read for hours at the right time.” I like the precise clar- We live in a world where elected officials, on end. That’s how I learned about ity of the phrase. We children’s librarians members of our representative govern- the world. And that saved me.” spend a lot of our time and energy select- ment, feel free to state publicly that one ing the “right books” and in knowing can identify undocumented workers by Now, we’ve all heard stories like that—maybe them and the communities we serve so the way they dress. And policy can be not from seventy-four-year-old Peace Corps we can place the right book into a child’s passed to exclude people with foreign volunteers—but there are other stories, just hands right when it is needed. accents from teaching English in pub- as dramatic or compelling. lic schools—never mind that they often But let’s consider for a moment this idea speak the language better than the native I think that every children’s librarian I of a “right child.” Just who is the right English speakers. Still, one would hope to have ever known has had a firm belief child? To me, the implication is that if see progress in the past sixty years, given that children’s books have the power to there is a right child, then there must also the hard lessons we learned from World save—if not the whole world, at least indi- be a wrong child. But is there? Is there War II, from the Holocaust in Germany, vidual children. Like much in our field, ever a wrong child whom we would pass and from our own national disgrace, the this can be traced back to Anne Carroll over and exclude? Not if we expect chil- Japanese-American internment camps. Moore, the formidable head of children’s dren’s books to save the world. That’s why, services at New York Public Library from as children’s librarians, another key part In looking specifically just at multicul- 1906 to 1941. of our philosophy is to include all chil- tural literature, we see the same sort of dren in the services we provide. issues being grappled with today that we If you know anything about Anne Carroll saw generations ago. To demonstrate this, Moore, you probably know about her And, in fact, I was so troubled by this I want to give you all a brief overview of eccentricities, such as her strong dis- idea that our foremothers in the field multicultural literature for children and like for Charlotte’s Web, which allegedly of children’s librarianship started with a teens: how it developed, what challenges kept the book from winning the Newbery concept of “the right child” that I sought we faced, how it was promoted—or not Medal back in 1952 . in spite of the fact out the original quote from Miss Moore, promoted, as the case may be. she wasn’t on the committee that year, and found that she never said anything and that, by then, she had been retired about a “right child.” Instead she said from her position at New York Public that librarians must assure that “every Library for ten years. child [be given] the right book at the right time” (italics are my own).2 That’s much You may have heard stories about more in keeping with the values of the Nicholas, the little wooden doll she car- children’s librarians I know, and it was ried with her everywhere.

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