The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter

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The ABC of It featured collection items from across the New York Public Library system to present literature for children and teens against a sweeping backdrop of history, the arts, popular culture, and technological change. The books and related objects on view revealed hidden historical contexts and connections, inviting second looks and fresh discoveries. Books for young people have stories to tell us about ourselves, and they are rarely as simple as they seem.

Curator: Leonard Marcus

  • Categories
  • American History
  • Exhibitions
  • Libraries
  • Participatory
  • Z New York Public Library
Pure+Applied played with scale to create a strong visual approach and make the story elements “come to life” for kids. P+A also had to develop ways to repurpose existing casework. In some instances, cases were masked with structures made to look like large books.
ABC of It. The artifacts’ dates of origin ranged from the 1600s to the present. (Books by Nathaniel Hawthorne are shown here.) P+A used the color yellow as a unifying element.
ABC of It - P+A designed Milo’s car and the tollbooth (from The Phantom Tollbooth). The tollbooth doubled as a vertical display case.
ABC of It. One of the exhibition’s key design vignettes explained the role of The Bank Street School. Here, Harold (from Harold and the Purple Crayon) diagrams it on the wall.
ABC of It. The Goodnight Moon room became a reading space. Visitors could take books from the shelf, sit on the window stool or low benches, and read.
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ABC of It. Another key story in the exhibition was the role that governments and children’s books play in indoctrinating and educating kids.
ABC of It. Passages and cut-throughs were sized for different-aged visitors and readers.
ABC of It. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was an important and popular section. Alice was motion-activated to extend her neck and reveal the text describing the taste of the magic elixir (from Through the Looking Glass).
ABC of It. For the Alice in Wonderland section, Pure+Applied created an Alice whose neck stretched; on the opposite side, there was a cut of the “rabbit hole.
ABC of It. Detail: For the Alice in Wonderland section, Pure+Applied created an Alice whose neck stretched; on the opposite side, there was a cut of the “rabbit hole.
There's more to the exhibition than that, but from a visual perspective it is so refreshing to see a show on design for children with rich, imaginative scenery, interactive elements on screens and on shelves, and an educational agenda that can be accessed for 15 minutes or two hours. The theatricality inherent in exhibitions has not been forgotten or suppressed in order to prove the seriousness of children's books as literature.

Design Observer

ABC of It. Tactile elements were a major design feature of the show. P+A integrated low-tech and analog interactives throughout the exhibition.
ABC of It. Tactile elements were a major design feature of the show. P+A integrated low-tech and analog interactives throughout the exhibition.
ABC of it. Hans Christian Anderson made beautiful paper cutouts. P+A used some of them to “broadcast” the section where his fairytales were displayed.
ABC of It. P+A used the Hans Christian Anderson figures to point to different iPads displaying his stories in e-reader form.
ABC of It. Via a dual-purpose plexi sheet mounted with standoffs, P+A protected a book and etched the plexi with a spider’s web and a quote from the book.
ABC of It. Among the four pairs of wall cases that P+A repurposed to look like open books, one told the story of Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City, and her advocacy to institute bilingual story hours at NYPL.
ABC of It. To tell the story of kid’s-bedside reading, we repurposed a bed to display what kid’s were really reading before they went to sleep—comic books.
ABC of It. To tell the story of kid’s-bedside reading, we repurposed a bed to display what kid’s were really reading before they went to sleep—comic books.
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ABC of It. This display featured on study carrels eight works of children’s literature “before” and “after” censorship.
ABC of It. Detail: P+A die-cut the “controversial” elements of the book to show the “before” and “after.
ABC of It. P+A die-cut the “controversial” elements of the book to show the “before” and “after.
ABC of It. Another example of tactility and respite in the exhibition: additional seating and available books created a reading space for visitors. Here, the complete manuscript of The Secret Garden is displayed on a repurposed display core.
ABC of It. Another example of tactility and respite in the exhibition: additional seating and available books created a reading space for visitors. Here, the complete manuscript of The Secret Garden is displayed on a repurposed display core.
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ABC of It. Pure+Applied designed the exhibition brochure.
ABC of It. Pure+Applied designed the exhibition brochure.
ABC of It. Pure+Applied designed the exhibition brochure.

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