Robert Lawson played a role in some great children's literature: The Story of Ferdinand, Mr. Popper's Penguins, the Newbery Award winning Rabbit Hill. His 1941 picture book They Were Strong and Good is not one of them. Racist, isolationist, and weirdly insular, it is essentially unreadable today as anything but a historical comparand. The illustrations aren't that great, either. Yet, it won a Caldecott and had a second print run just one month after its first edition. It's still in print today. In this episode, we don't go so far as to answer why--but we do address why it probably shouldn't be.

Give it a listen, and if you like what you hear, give us a follow and review!

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Show graphics by Emily Tetrault. Theme and interstitials excerpted from Erik Satie's Gnossienne #1. All book images used under the Fair Use exceptions to exclusive copyright as defined under Title 17, subsection 107, of US Code.