In this week’s New Yorker (the one with the infamous Obama as Muslim cover), there is a wonderful article entitled “The Lion and the Mouse” which provides a brief history of children’s literature and children’s libraries. As the summer winds down and we are reminded about going “Back to School,” it is interesting to read the article, especially while thinking about the development of our own Curriculum Library. The concept of separate rooms in public libraries for children which contained children’s books and which were staffed by librarians who actually liked chhildren, was unusual around the turn of the last century. Andrew Carnegie donated funds for the construction of 1600 public libraries before 1917, almost none of which had designated space for children. Instead children were routinely turned away from public libraries because they “needed to be protected from morally corrupting books, especially novels.” The efforts to develop programing for children in public libraries and acquire literature suitable for kids and teenagers are surprisingly recent and not as straight-foward as might have been thought.