"Truck!"

"Today, more quality children's books are published every month than any one child can read, and if kids occasionally take a ride with Nancy Drew in her blue roadster, most adults see nothing to complain about. But Moore articulated her Four Respects for a reason; in her day, children were regarded by publishers as indiscriminate readers easily satisfied by mass-produced pablum. Good kids' books were hard to come by. Worst of all, in Moore's eyes, was the 'poverty' of decent books for girls. Raised in a small town in Maine where she spent much of her time outdoors and aspired to follow in the professional footsteps of her attorney father, Moore had no patience for the 'moralizing and didactic.' A girl, she wrote, 'cannot afford to waste her emotions nor her time. She has need of every resource that may fortify her spirit, sharpen her native wit and challenge the full powers of mind and heart.'"

Laura Miller in Slate discusses pioneering children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore.