SOUTHERN BRANCH, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,, LIBRARY, 1L0S ANGELES, CALIF. The Children's Reading r** THE CHILDREN'S READING BY Frances Jenkins Olcott BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ($fte fiiticrtfitie pre?s CambriDflc COPYRIGHT, 191 2 ( BY FRANCES JENKINS OLCOTT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published November IQlt GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO F. O. AND J. E. O. \ 37 Note to the Reader THE aim of this book is to meet in a simple and practical way the following questions often asked by parents : Of what value are books in the educa- tion of my children % What is the effect of bad reading *? How may I interest my children in home- reading"? What kind of books do children like ? What books shall I give my growing boy and girl? Where and how may I procure books? These questions are answered in fourteen chapters, each followed by a descriptive list of books helpful to parents and to child- study clubs, or suitable for the children's own reading. All juvenile books recommended are selected by standards based on Christian ethics, practical psychology, and the literary values of generally accepted good books. Instructions are given for procuring books viii Note to the Reader by purchase or from public libraries. Special suggestions are made for parents living in the country. To make the information in the book of practical use, suggestions are given as to ways and means of interesting children in home- reading, and developing their literary tastes gradually and pleasantly for, as the great- est of our English poets says: "No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en." Contents I. The Influence of Good Books . i II. Some Modern Conditions and the Effects of Bad Books . .11 MIL Children's Interests . . 19 \ IV. Ways of Guiding Reading . . 29 ^V. Picture Books and Illustrators 40 VI. Easy Reading . . . . 58, VII. Fables, Myths, and Fairy Tales 60 VIII. Ballads, Epics, and Romances . 99 IX. Poetry and Rhymes . . .129. X. Some Classics and Standards . 146 XL Fiction of To-day . . .168 XII. History, Biography, and Travel 198 XIII. Useful Books .... 223 XIV. Religious Books .... 252 x Contents Appendix One Hundred Good Stories to tell and where to find them . . 275 how to procure books through the Public Library . . . 284 how to procure children's books by Purchase .... 299 Purchase List of Children's Books 302 Index ....... 339 B | A TABLE C t AND NOTABLE PERSONS W This table cannot show to full extent the number of famoi * often state merely that such and such a man was a voracioui Most of the books listed here were read before the readers we a* biographies have been compared so that the material presen THE BIBLE Queen Elizabeth Daniel Webster Harriet B. Stowe John G. Whittier FAERIE QUEENE Lowell Milton Hawthorne Keats ARABIAN NIGHTS Alexandre Dumas Sir Henry Layard Leigh Hunt Tolstoy FAIRY TALES Charles Lamb Sir Walter Scott Robert Burns Coleridge DON QUIXOTE Longfellow Dickens ' Aldrich Emerson GULLIVER'S TRAVELS Hugh Miller Lucy Larcom Walter Besant 14*4**Jl4t**4**4*44**4**4**44*4 3 f CLASSICS ' NFLUENCED BY THEM eople influenced by the books which are listed. Biographies Jft ider in his youth, devouring every book that came to hand, j ixteen years old, and many before they were twelve. Many 3 here is collected from different sources. *- DYSSEY Henry M. Stanley Hugh Miller Ruskin Wagner ROBINSON CRUSOE Macaulay Washington Irving Coleridge Alexandre Dumas [LGRIM'S PROGRESS Rufus Choate Sm Humphry Davy Benjamin Franklin Charles Lamb SCOTT'S NOVELS AND POEMS Bayard Taylor Hawthorne Lowell Stedman .UTARCH Napoleon Alexander Hamilton Madame de Maintenon Madame Roland SHAKESPEARE Daniel Webster Lincoln Darwin Emerson ft4*g4444*444*44>**8 THE CHILDREN'S READING CHAPTER I THE INFLUENCE OF GOOD BOOKS " Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book j he bath not eat paper, as it were; be bath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished.** Shakespeare. THE guiding of the children's reading is of great importance because it is fund- amental. It strikes at the roots of many weedy growths that weaken and hamper the healthy development of character. For even as when desiring a beautiful garden, we pre- pare the soil and plant the selected seeds, and pluck out the weeds ; so should we carefully prepare the children's minds, root out the tares, and fill their imaginations with the noble thoughts and ideals of those great books which will help the developing men or women to resist ignoble and corroding' influences. 1 The Children's Reading As it is satisfying to have tangible reasons for the faith that is in us, let us glance for a moment at some of the evidence of the Past which proves the importance of early train- ing of children and the power of good books to mould character and shape events. We shall arise from such examination with re- newed earnestness and a desire born of conviction, not sentiment to pass along the joys and helps of literature to all children for whom we are responsible. " You know also that the beginning is the chiefest part of any work," says Plato, " es- pecially in a young and tender thing ; for that is the time at which the character is formed and most readily receives the desired impression." " Childhood is a tender thing," testifies Plutarch, "and easily wrought into any shape. Yea, and the very souls of child- ren readily receive the impressions of those things that are dropped into them while they are yet but soft ; but when they grow older, they will, as all hard things are, be more diffi- cult to be wrought upon. And as soft wax is apt to take the stamp of the seal, so are the The Influence of Good Books 3 minds of children to receive the instructions imprinted on them at that age." Not only Plato and Plutarch, but modern educators agree that " the child is father of the man," and that to train children in the way they should go insures that they will not depart therefrom. For childhood is with- out question the impressionable period, the time for educating the imagination to normal action, for instilling good habits, for teaching the distinctions between right and wrong, and for laying the foundation of the spiritual life. All unconscious are the children of this process of imbibing ideas and sugges- tions to be recalled and used automatically when they come to years of judgment. This storing process cannot be more surely accom- plished than by arousing the children's inter- est in good books. To this bears witness much proof of the Past and Present. As we read the life of many a great man or woman we find convincing proof of the power of books read in the home. Often the awaken- ing of feelings and emotions, and sometimes of strong purposes governing after life, are 4 The Children's Reading traceable to books read in childhood, or to the promptings of book-loving parents. These points are best illustrated by a few examples of the influence of one great au- thor Plutarch of whom Emerson says: "His grand perceptions of duty led him to his stern delight in heroism ; a stoic resist- ance to low indulgence; to a fight with for- tune ; a regard for truth ; his love of Sparta, and of heroes like Aristides, Phocion, and Cato. He insists that the highest good is in action. . . . His delight in magnanimity and self-sacrifice has made his books, like Homer's Iliad, a bible for heroes." Many are the evidences of Plutarch's in- fluence. A few will do here for illustration. "You could not have sent me anything which could be more agreeable," King Henry the Fourth wrote to his wife, Marie de' Medici, " than the news of the pleasure you have taken in this reading. Plutarch always delights me with a fresh novelty. To love him is to love me ; for he has been long time the instructor of my youth. My good mother, to whom I owe all, and who would The Influence of Good Books 5 not wish, she said, to see her son an illus- trious dunce, put this book into my hands almost when I was a child at the breast. It has been like my conscience, and has whis- pered in my ear many good suggestions and maxims for my conduct, and the government of my affairs." We find Madame Roland carrying Plu- tarch to church with her instead of a prayer- book that was when she was nine years old. "From that period," -she writes, "I may date the first impressions and ideas that ren- dered me a republican." So it was Madame Roland's childhood reading that laid the foundations for her political views which led to her martyrdom in the cause of liberty. The same author exerted a strong influence over the young Napoleon, who read with avidity history, especially of ancient repub- lics. The "Commentaries" of Caesar was also one of his favorite books. In like manner we may trace the effect of countless other books from the Holy Bible, that has moved nations and wrought miracles in the souls of men, to the writings 6 The Children's Reading of poets, sages, historians, and novelists that have helped to mould character and shape events. Masson writes that there are evidences that Milton's earliest reading had ranged far beyond the day's theological works and "it is with his early readings of Du Bartas, Spenser, and other poets, that we are bound, by the concord of time, to connect his own first efforts in English verse. According to Au- brey he had been a poet from the age often." "The first two books I ever read in pri- vate," writes Burns in a delightfully reminis- cent letter to his friend Dr. Moore, "and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read again, were The Life of Hannibal,' and ' The History of Sir William Wallace.' Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting-drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough that I might be a soldier; while the story of Wal- lace poured a Scottish prejudice in my veins, which will boil along there till the flood- gates of life shut in eternal rest." The Influence of Good Books 7 Gladstone enumerates some of his early- books "Pilgrim's Progress," "The Arabian Nights," " Tales of the Genii," and Miss Porter's "Scottish Chiefs." The latter, he says, touched him deeply, "especially the life and death of Wallace, used to make me weep. This would be when I was about ten years old." A list of Gladstone's readings the year he was seventeen is most impress- ive. It includes among other things Moliere and Racine, " Tom Jones," Tomline's "Life of Pitt," Leslie on " Deism," Locke's " De- fence of the Reasonableness of Christianity," Milton's Latin poems and "Paradise Lost," Ben Jonson's "Alchemist," and Scott, in- cluding the " Bride of Lammermoor." The last he called a beautiful tale, and it was in after life a favorite book. Says Morley, re- ferring to Gladstone's notes on the books he read, "Mention is made of many sermons on 'Redeeming the time,' 'Weighed in the balance and found wanting,' * Cease to do evil, learn to do good,' and other ever un- exhausted texts. One constant entry, we may be sure, is ' Read Bible.' " 8 The Children's Reading Into the field of science we trace the book influence. The twelve-year-old Huxley lighted his candle before daylight and with a blanket pinned about his shoulders read Hutton's " Geology." " One of his boyish speculations," says his son, " was as to what would become of things if their qualities were taken away; and lighting upon Sir William Hamilton's Logic ' he devoured it to such good effect that when, years after- wards, he came to tackle the great philoso- phers, especially the English and German, he found he had already a clear notion of where the key of metaphysics lay." It is not possible to give in this limited space many examples of the influence of books. The reader is referred for further evidence to the table of early readings of great people which forms the frontispiece of this volume. But we cannot better close this brief survey than with a glimpse of young Abe Lincoln stretched out on the cabin floor, reading, by the light of a burning log, those precious books to borrow which he had tramped many a mile. He learned The Influence of Good Books 9 Burns by heart, and Shakespeare, too, a significant fact when we consider the depth and breadth of Shakespeare's humanity, and that Burns sang the brotherhood of man. Thus we find that the Past presents an overwhelming and convincing mass of proof as to the influence of books. We find many men and women deeply moved and impelled by what they read strong virile literature capable of impressing the imagina- tion. And, what is of educational importance, we note that many of these books were read, appreciated, and their contents absorbed by the very young. With this evidence before us we should surely feel more than ever the grave re- sponsibility of directing the children's read- ing, cultivating their powers of discrimin- ation, and making them book-lovers in the finest sense of the word. One may then say with the Lacedemonian, who, when asked what he had done for the child in his charge, replied, "I make good and honest things pleasant to children." io The Children's Reading SOME INTERESTING ARTICLES ON THE EARLY INFLUENCE OF GOOD BOOKS Books for children to read. (In Baldwin, Book Lover.) Evidences of the influence of books on great men, and advice on the selection of children's books. On novels and the art of writing them. (In Trollope, Autobiography.) On the character-moulding powers of the good and bad novel, and of the novelist's responsibility. On reading old books. (In Hazlitt, Plain Speaker.) A charming essay laying emphasis on the pleasures of reading in youth. The problem. (In Moses, Children's Books and Reading.) A plea for strong reading for children a chapter in a book dealing with the growth of children's litera- ture. Contains valuable bibliographies on the sub- ject. What children read. (In Repplier, Books and Men.) A spicy essay comparing the strong book with the weak. CHAPTER II SOME MODERN CONDITIONS AND THE EFFECTS OF BAD BOOKS " Let everything possible be done to keep these sensitive boys and girls ; but particularly the former, from familiarity nvith crime. Do not thrust desperadoism upon them from the shop-nvindonvs through the picture-covered dime novel, and the faring pages of the 'Police Gazette.'' It is just such teaching by suggestion that starts many an honest but romantic boy off to the road, nvhen a little cautious legislation might save him years of foolish nvandering and the State the expense of housing him in its reformatories later on. I write nvith feeling, at this point, for I knovj from personal experience nvhat tantalizing thoughts a dime novel ivill anvaken in such a boy^s mind. One of these thoughts ivill play more havoc nvith his youth than can be made good in bis manhood^* Flynt, " Tramping with Tramps." ALL our modern children are not Mil- tons, Madame Rolands, or Lincolns, living comparatively isolated lives, and sur- rounded by a few strong books not written for children. To-day we have to face rapidly changing conditions. Education is no longer for the fortunate few, but for all. Interests are wider, though with a tendency to super- ii T. e Children's Reading ficiality, and good and bad books may be had almost for the asking. So before we proceed to select reading for the present-day boys and girls it is helpful to examine some of the deteriorating influences which affect their reading tastes. Modern city children are thrust, almost in babyhood, into the ceaseless, bewildering rush of life outside the home. They are ex- posed in a truer sense of the word than are the children whom the heathen abandon to die of cold and hunger exposed to evil foes attacking from all sides : to weak and bad companions, to the exciting pleasures of the street, to the influence of low shows, coarse pictures, suggestive bill-posters, and to the dangerous suggestions of the nickel and dime novels. Thus the children's virtues are likely to be corrupted, and their minds filled with coarsening thoughts and ignoble purposes. The church, school, settlement, play- ground, and public library are all doing their share to counteract deteriorating influences, but the foundations of the walls that will The Effects of Bad Books 13 successfully shut out these warring enemies of the soul must be laid in the home. Teach- ers, librarians, and social workers can cooper- ate with, but they cannot serve as substitutes for educated parents, who, by the laws of family relationship, likeness of mental pro- cesses, and force of personal example, exert a more powerful, direct, daily influence on the moral, mental, and spiritual growth of their children. The most forceful virtue-fostering in- fluences are to be found in the highest type of the home. But the home in these modern times has undergone changes which have weakened its constructive powers. The mother is the home-maker. The modern fac- tory now makes many of the household sup- plies which the mother formerly made with her own hands. Thus for some time past she has been relieved of a number of home du- ties, and her time and attention have been diverted to pleasures and duties of outside life. Hitherto the modern mother has had little time for the old-fashioned companion- ship with her children, to read, work, or sew 14 The Children's Reading with them, or to devise their amusements. The father has been too absorbed by his busi- ness to enjoy his children. Thus many a home has offered no inducement to look for amuse- ment there, consequently it has lost its strength to counteract evil outside forces. Happily there has been of late a strong re- action towards home-making and personal parental supervision. The mother is now making a wise adjustment of her time be- tween home duties and the pressing calls of the outside world philanthropic, educa- tional, and civic. She is studying the best methods of developing her children, includ- ing the guiding of reading. Indeed, the mother now realizes that weak and vicious books undermine character. In order to meet actual conditions, when guiding the children's reading, all parents should know something of the nature of the bad books that fall so easily into their children's hands. There are two classes of bad books : one the thrilling tale of impossible adventure, weak, sentimental, and enervating, neither The Effects of Bad Books 15 strong enough to incite to action, nor aiming to inculcate noble ideas of right and wrong ; the other the really vicious tale, written in bombastic language and presenting false stan- dards of life and morals under the glamour of sensational love-story, or daring adventures of criminals, detectives, and other question- able heroes. It is scarcely possible to keep the children, especially city children, from some know- ledge of these books. For weak and vicious fiction may be found everywhere. It may be bought for a few cents from the news-stand, rented from cheap subscription libraries, bor- rowed from comrades, and found even on the shelves of those public libraries which exer- cise no educational supervision over the selection of the books they provide for the children of their communities. Impelled by the natural force of book- hunger, boys and girls will read something, and they want that something to be excit- ing or emotional. If good and entertaining books are not provided the boy may subsist entirely (possibly in secret) on a diet of 16 The Children's Reading dime and nickel novels, and if procurable, on the lurid pages of the " Police Gazette " while the girl will eagerly devour the vulgar love-episodes of the family story papers, and the cheap " yellow novels." Even if good books are made available the boy will pro- bably read his quota of " dimes and nickel." Happily the real danger from reading these tales does not lie in enjoying a few of them, but in the continuous indulgence in weak and vicious reading. At a very early period constructive home influences should be brought to bear on the children. Their pow- ers of discrimination should be developed, and mentality strengthened ; so after a while they will find that the cheap story palls and becomes insipid, and sensational adventures seem no longer plausible, or worth reading, when they may have a vigorous story for the asking. When children reach this stage, then the " yellow " book has no longer any hold on them. If, however, constructive influences are not brought to bear, the boy is likely to retain in his character the marks set by the false The Effects of Bad Books 17 standards of life, the mock heroics, and the criminal suggestions of the dime and nickel novels; and the girl will continue to feed on those vulgar love-tales, which cannot fail to color her views of life in general. Another evil force to be fully reckoned with is the uncensored moving-picture-show, where on the screen are vivified the doings of criminals, outlaws, and vagabonds. It is a common occurrence in the public library for children to ask for books by the titles of the current programmes of the neighbor- hood picture-shows ; proving the power of moving-pictures to excite interest in sensa- tional reading. Here the same undermining forces are at work as in the dime and nickel novel the suggestions entering the mind through the same powerful medium, the imagination. In this necessarily brief survey of the ef- fects of bad reading it is not possible to pre- sent the matter from all sides. The reader is therefore directed for further information to the following books containing much food for thought. 18 The Children's Reading ON THE INFLUENCE OF BAD BOOKS Little Pharisees in Fiction. (In Repplier, Varia.) Of Elsie Dinsmore and her kind. The Children of the Road. (In Flynt, Tramp- ing with Tramps.) "In the bottom of their hearts they are no worse than the average boy and girl, but they have been unfortu- nate enough to see a picture or hear a story of some famous rascal and it has lodged in their brains; until the temptation to go and do likewise ' has come upon them with such overwhelming force that they simply cannot resist." The Influence of Books. (In Field, Fingerposts to Children's Reading.) Gives practical illustrations of the effects of bad books. CHAPTER III CHILDREN'S INTERESTS '* See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, Some fragment from his dream of human life. Shaped by himself, ivith newly-learned art ; A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral ; And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song , Then will he fit his tongue To dialogues of business, love, or strife . . . Filling from time to time his " humorous stage ** With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, That life brings with her in her equipage j As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.'''' Wordsworth. IF parents wish to initiate their children into the full joys of reading, they must be able to look back, at their own childhood doings through a veil of half-humorous re- trospection. They should be sympathetic with children's thrills of excitement, with their curiosity, their fancies, their sense of humor, and with their love of warmth and color. 20 The Children's Reading In discussing reading we may pass quickly over the good little children, placidly seated on benches, with aprons immaculate, and smooth, parlor-made faces, who, if they exist outside the brain of the sentimentalist, may be disposed of once for all with a diet of "Parent's Assistant," "Rosamond and the Purple Jar," "The Fairchild Family," and "Sandford and Merton" or, better still, with an antidote to unnatural goodness in the shape of liberal doses of " Peck's Bad Boy" and the " yellowest" of nickel novels. The children whom we have to deal with thoughtfully are those of the playground and nursery; who are in perpetual motion, sparkling, rumpled, saucy, mischievous, in- quisitive, keen at questioning, and quick to respond to suggestions good and bad if they are presented in an enticing way. These children are a never-failing source of delight to parents who study the interests and daily development of their boys and girls, and who seek to fit the right books to varying tastes. Such study brings not only pleasure but wisdom to parents, for, as Goethe says, " If Children's Interests 21 one, after the manner of Swedenborgian spir- its, wishes to look through the eyes of others, one would do best to use children's eyes for that purpose." The process of gradually moulding the mind of a child is best begun in infancy. The mother finds, even before the little one can speak, that he responds to rhythm. First to lullabies, then to Mother Goose rhymes, repeated over and over, with emphasis on the rhyme. Half the baby's pleasure is in the frequent hearing of a familiar strain. The baby enjoys also, largely for rhythm's sake, short stories with refrains and much repeti- tion, also cumulative tales ; like, " The Three Bears," "This Little Pig went to Market," "To Boston, to Boston," "The House that Jack Built," " The Pig that would not go over the Stile," and many others to be found in Mother Goose, iEsop, Grimm, and Ja- cobs. An acquaintance of the writer, who be- lieves in the importance of rhythmic train- ing, reads aloud Italian to his young children, who, though they do not understand the ii The Children's Reading meaning of the words, are fascinated by the musical cadence of the language. The writer knows of one baby boy who, long before he could speak, would sit mo- tionless for half an hour or more on his aunt's lap listening to stories told swiftly and rhythmically to the older children. He was a healthy, active little lad, full of mischief at other times, but during story-telling he would sit spell-bound, with eyes fixed stead- fastly on the story-teller's face. This feeling for rhythm is found in al- most every normal child. It is in fact the rudiment or germ of a sense of balance and harmony, and as such should be carefully nurtured. The Greeks laid stress on this branch of education the development of the sense of harmony through music and poetry. And modern educators are introduc- ing folk-song and dancing into schools and playground curriculums. As the infant passes into childhood he be- gins to take an interest in live things es- pecially domestic animals and later in flowers, wind, rain, stars, and other expres- Children's Interests 23 sions of Nature. He finds delight in picture- books, and short stories of animals, birds, and flowers. When a little older he enjoys fables, fairy and wonder tales, short moral stories, and imaginative tales of home, play, and humor. The transition from childhood into boy- hood and girlhood is at first scarcely percep- tible. It comes at no definite age, but accord- ing to the maturity of the individual child. It usually occurs between ten and twelve years of age. At this period both boy and girl begin to show a twofold interest in life and books. They are alike in their idealistic interests that is, in a craving for romance and chivalry, and the poetic interpretation of ethical truths. But they begin to develop differing sex interests in the affairs and books of practical life. As a boy's practical interest evolves, he, being objective by nature, prefers stories of athletics, of daring adventures, thrilling dan- gers and escapes, also of gregarious life, such as the experiences of gangs, pirates and rob- ber-bands, and members of secret societies i\ The Children's Reading and clubs. He enjoys history, biography, and books that show him how to make and do things. A girl, with intense subjectivity, reads by preference stories of play, home, and school life ; the burden of which too often is pain- ful mental suffering over small sins, and misunderstandings. As she grows older she enjoys simple love stories of a romantic nature. The natural instincts of a girl are narrower than a boy's. They may be broadened, how- ever, if some one whom she admires takes an active part in directing her reading; for the girl is a hero-worshiper, and is willing to be guided by the judgment of one whom she likes. On the other hand, a boy is cau- tious about taking advice from any one who does not agree with his definite likes for things and actions ; this is especially true of his reading. Although it is possible to classify roughly certain tastes and interests as belonging to one or more periods ofchildhood and youth, it is impossible to~forecast the individual Children's Interests 25 talents and preferences of children. These, parents must watch and satisfy as need calls, and adjust their selection of books accord- ingly. There are books to meet all interests, indi- vidual, idealistic, practical ; books that will sat- isfy budding talents, and books that cover a wide range of popular girl and boy interests; many of these the children will read for them- selves without pressure. But the books that may forcibly impress on character ideas of jus- tice, truth, honor, loyalty, and heroism, these must be introduced to the children through tactful and enjoyable methods, which will stimulate the imagination. Some of these methods already proved to be successful are briefly discussed in the following chapter. There is, however, no more refreshing way of renewing one's youth than through read- ing some of the human books listed below. The list is merely suggestive, for there are many other stories dealing sympathetically with children's interests. 26 The Children's Reading ON CHILDREN'S INTERESTS Infancy and childhood Cosette, book 3. (In Hugo, Les Miserables.) Cosette works, plays, and suffers at Thenardier's inn. Golden Age. (Grahame.) Charming, reminiscent tales, told with poetic feeling and sympathy with childhood's plays and fancies. King John, Act IV. (Shakespeare.) Arthur and Hubert. 6