WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | WINTER 2022 25
@ Shaker Library
Generous Readers Endow
Award-Winning Collections
for Young Readers
The Fisher Collection and the Coretta
Scott King Collection are two special
collections in the Main Library
Children’s Room, available for browsing
and borrowing.
The Fisher family established The
Fisher Collection in 1989 to honor the
memory of Elaine “Boots” Fisher and
her support for children’s literature.
Their gift funded the purchase of a
retrospective collection of Newbery and
Caldecott award winners. Newbery and
Caldecott are the most prestigious awards
for children’s literature in the United
States. Thanks to the generosity of her
family, Boots Fisher’s legacy lives on as
the Library continues to use the funds to
purchase books connecting children to
exceptional literature.
First presented in 1922, The
Newbery Medal was the first children’s
book award in the world. The American
Library Association of
Library Services to
Children (ALSC)
created the
medal to honor
the author
of “the most
distinguished
contribution
to American
literature for
children.” The award
was named for John Newbery, an 18thcentury
English publisher who believed
that learning could be fun and that
children could enjoy books –
a revolutionary idea at the time.
In 1938, the ALSC
established the
Caldecott Medal,
an annual prize
recognizing
the artist of
the “most
distinguished
American
picture book for
children.” Named to
honor the 19th-century
English illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott,
the illustration on the Caldecott Medal is
taken from a drawing from his book, The
Diverting Story of John Gilpin.
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