1924 Project

It was indeed a different era. What was going on in 1924 when these books were being published and read? The 1924 Paris Olympics, Leopold and Loeb murders, the premiere of Rhapsody in Blueby Gershwin. Vladimir Lenin died, and Mallory and Irvine disappeared while attempting to summit Mt. Everest. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and crossword puzzles were all the rage after Simon snd Schuster published their first book of crosswords.

As far children’s literature was concerned, the field of books written especially for children was just coming into its own. The Horn Book Magazine, the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children’s literature, was founded in Boston in 1924. The Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” was only a couple of years old. The medal-winning book for 1925 (published in 1924) was Tales from Silver Lands, a book of Central and South American folktales, collected and recorded by Charles Finger. Two other 1924 books were “runners-up” for the Newbery: The Dream Coach by Anne Parish and Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by New York Public Library’s head children’s librarian, Anne Carroll Moore.

Unfortunately, all three Newbery-honored books from 1924 seem to me to be not horrible, but forgettable. The South American folktales are perhaps of interest to scholars and storytellers, but I doubt the average child would glom onto them. The other two books are more the sort of books that adults think children should like than they are the kind of story that children do enjoy.

A reading team comprised of librarians and excellent readers made it a goal to read as many of the books published in English in 1924 as possible and record their thoughts as they went. Sherry and our book friend Terri Shown joined Sara and Diane on the podcast to discuss the project and what we learned. You can find out a lot more about the books themselves, here. 

• Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag


• Sherry's 1924 Blog Post


• The List


• We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne


• Theras and His Town by Caroline Dale Snedeker


• Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Anne Carroll Moore


• The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish


• Tales From Silver Lands by Charles Joseph Finger


• The New Moon: The Story of Dick Martin's Courage, His Silver Sixpence and His Friends in the New World by Cornelia Meigs 


• Down the Big River by Stephen Meader 


• Down the Big River - Sara's Review


• America’s Children by James Otis (Living Book Press)


• The Boy Whaleman by George Fox Tucker 


• The Boy Whaleman Sherry's Review


• The Pearl Lagoon by Charles Nordhoff


• The Pearl Lagoon Sherry's Review


• Boy's Games Among the North American Indians by Edith Stow


• Rascal by Sterling North 


• Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field


• Calico Bush by Rachel Field


• Taxis and Toadstools by Rachel Field


• The Child’s Garden of Verse by Robert Louis Stevenson 


• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner


• The 1964 Project