Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

Written by Jan Pinborough

Illustrated by Debby Atwell

Houghton Mifflin, 2013

38 pages

Non-Fiction

       I am in love with this story! This was recommended to me by a librarian and she obviously loves it as well! My paternal great grandmother was a librarian in Opelika, Alabama, so I felt a little bit of a personal connection to this story. My mother has many fond memories of visiting her library, and I have visited it too! I even have some of her books from her library! This is a story about a woman who was trail-blazer! She, along with a troop of other women, paved the way that changed the "status quo" in libraries when it came to the view of children in the library setting and children's literature. Anne Moore was a little girl from Maine whose father was a lawyer. At that time, little girls were not suppose to do much else but sit inside and sew. Anne wanted to travel ans see the world, but after her mother and father both died the same week of the flu, she had to stay behind and take care of her family. Eventually she was able to move to New York City, where she enrolled in a college for librarians. When she graduated, she got a job and was eventually promoted to oversee all of the libraries in NYC. At that time there were 36 different sections all over the city! A new library was to be built on Fifth Avenue to make one big library and Miss Moore vowed that the children's room was going to be fantastic! She planned it out herself and it was wildly successful!

      The illustrations are done in acrylic on paper, according to the inside cover. I really enjoy these pictures! They are very simply drawn and pleasing to the eye. The colors are bright and vivid. I feel like the pictures always add so much to the story, and for this story it is the same!

      This book is all about having a love of reading and learning! Making our classroom libraries more accessible and engaging for our students is the key and Miss Moore knew this! I would take a poll, or have the students fill out a questionnaire on how their classroom library, or even school library could be improved upon. Involving them not only makes them feel important and that their opinion is valuable, but if they see real change, the concept comes alive for them.