5 Quotes by Ruth Hill Viguers

I once heard a panel discussion among magazine editors, who voiced their common greatest problem: to find people who can write. A generation has grown up lacking skill in composition and any sense of literary style. Though I doubt that any study of the matter has been made, my own experiences have borne out a theory that people who grow up hearing and reading folk and fairy tales throughout childhood develop not only lively imaginations, but originality in the use of words.

I believe that the public library children’s room will always be necessary; but, if it is to survive, society in general must recognize it as necessary. I see no assurance of its survival unless it accomplishes what no other agency can.

Success today is too often measured by statistics. Large circulation figures are very impressive to people outside of the profession and to library directors who are not familiar with the aims of the public library children’s room. However, in spite of the emphasis on tangible proof, the children’s library which accomplishes its true aims will make itself felt so positively that even the most pragmatic board of trustees should be convinced of its worth.

Popularity of a book is not the criterion of its importance. A few very popular books are important experiences that we are glad to see many children having, but many popular books are, at best, commonplace experiences. The temptation in buying books for libraries is to buy those that “move,” that will not sit on the shelves. Yet very often the book that rests on the shelf may be the one that would be the most vivid experience of all to a certain child if he could but find it.

When I hear someone say, “Yes, it’s a good book but our children don’t like it,” I am inclined to think that either the librarian herself does not like it or has not read it. If a book is really good, if it is really alive, it is a potentially important experience for some children, perhaps only a few, but it may have a more far-reaching significance to those few than would a hundred mediocre books.