Fairy Tale and Thumb Wars

So I've started that biography of Margaret Wise Brown. This afternoon I came across a mention of the infamous "Fairy Tale War." This was the "acrimonious debate over the value of folk and fantasy literature for younger children" between Anne Carroll Moore, the New York Public Library's first Superintendent of Children's Work and Lucy Sprague Mitchell, the founder of the Bank Street College of Education and the author of the Here and Now Story Book. This was back in the 20s and 30s. Moore was for fairy tales and against realistic stories, Mitchell made the opposite argument. (Imagine! The things people get themselves all  het up about.) The idea of a "Fairy Tale War" reminded me of The Small Object's Thumb War wrestling belts :

See also: A Brief History of the Thumb Wars.

Comments

[babelbabe]

I JUST started that book too. I think after looking at it after reading about it here...

[Stephany Aulenback]

Margaret Wise Brown is such an interesting character...