Located in Chicago, IL, the Newberry Library is an independent research library dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge, especially in the humanities. Public education has been part of the institution’s mission from its beginning, and the library presents exhibits, musical and dramatic performances, lectures, symposia, tours, and other programs in order to open the collections to the widest possible audience. All programs present and interpret the culture of manuscript and print to adults and families in an era increasingly dominated by electronic media.

The Newberry Library has an extraordinary, wide-ranging children’s book collection dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. The collection includes fiction, folklore, classical literature, music, poetry, children’s textbooks, primers and geographies, as well as secondary literature such as literary criticism, bibliographies, and biographical resources. Until January 17, 2009, selected items from the Newberry’s children’s literature holdings will be showcased in an exhibit entitled Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children’s Books:

“The exhibition showcases aspects of the interaction between children and books and includes approximately 65 works, drawn from the Library’s collection of thousands of children’s books in more than 100 languages, from the fifteenth century to the present. Artifacts of Childhood features such treasures as: the first illustrated edition of Aesop’s Fables (1485); the first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865); a nineteenth-century collectible story, La Fille de L’Exile, that is similar in format to Pokemon cards; and ABCs from 1544 to 1992.

These and other materials allow exhibit visitors to traverse time, space, and cultures to trace continuity and change within the history of children’s books, to examine changing attitudes towards children and childhood, and to understand the importance of the study of the history of childhood through children’s books.”

Exhibit admission is free with no reservations required. To read press coverage of the exhibit click here.

My friend Holly who is an ardent and gifted bookseller of children’s literature put The Boy in the Striped Pajamas into my hands when I asked her which recently-read children’s book resonated and lingered with her long after she had put it down. She is a woman whose taste is beyond impeccable so I took her recommendation home with me, read it, and months later am still haunted by it.

Because it is a book that falls outside of the usual geographical boundaries that mark books recommended and reviewed by Papertigers, and because it is a disturbing work of fiction, I didn’t immediately feature it as a Tiger’s Choice for children and adults to read together. Then I talked to my friend and colleague Corinne about it. She immediately read it and gave it to her eleven-year-old son, so they could discuss it, and I begged to be part of their conversation when it took place.

And that clinched it–if this book had this effect on Holly, Corinne and me, all women of different ages and backgrounds, and if Corinne instantly passed it on to her son, it is a book that merits discussion by a wider audience–and here we are.

I think the author would be happy to know that it has been chosen as a book for both adults and children to talk about in a forum where everyone has equal footing. John Boyne remarked in the interview at the end of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, “I’m not entirely sure I know what the difference is between a children’s book and an adults’ book,” and then quotes a friend’s question, “What is Treasure Island?”

There will be no questions posed about this book until we begin to discuss it after June 15th because it is crucial that we all come to our own conclusions in our very own ways. In explaining why it is a book that has world-wide importance, John Boyne says, “Fences such as the one in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas still exist; it is unlikely that they will ever fully disappear.” Perhaps if enough people talk about this book, and other novels that address the same issue, we may someday live in a world without fences.