LIBRARY ^.< / OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. V GIFT O Class READING FOR HILDREI THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL, THE HOME, AND THE LIBRARY LITERATURE presents the ideal of human life as it has expressed itself in the great institutions of family, church, state, and society. It clothes these ideals in the flowing robes of the imagination and adorns them with the jewels of well-chosen words, set in rhythmic and melodious forms. To feed the mind of youth on the ideals of a noble and elevated human life ; to win his fidelity to the family through sweet pictures of parental affection, and filial devotion, and pure household joys ; to secure his loyalty to the state by thrilling accounts of the deeds of brave men and heroic women ; to make righteousness attractive by pointed fable, or pithy proverb, or strik- ing tale of self-sacrificing fidelity to the costly right against the profitable wrong ; to inflame with a desire to emulate the example of patriot, martyr, and philanthropist, this is the social mission of good literature in the public schools. To. interpret this literature, so that it comes home to the boys and girls, so that they see re- flected in it the image of their own better selves, so that they carry with them its inspiration through all their after lives, this is the duty and privilege of the public school. It is not of so much con- sequence what a boy knows when he leaves school, as what he loves. The greater part of what he knows he will speedily forget. What he loves he will feed on. His hunger will prompt his efforts to increase his store. The love of good literature a genuine delight in Longfellow and Whittier, Lowell and Tennyson, Haw- thorne and Scott, Shakespeare and Homer is, from every point of view, the most valuable equipment with which the school can send its boys and girls into the world. WILLIAM DE WITT HYDE, President of Bowdoin College. The Right Reading for Children In the School the Home and the Library COMPILED BY CHARLES Author of "Some Notes on the History of Children's Literature," "A Bookseller of the Last Cen- tury," " Publishing a Book," Etc. BOSTON, U.S.A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY D. C. HEATH & Co. CONTENTS LIST OF AUTHORITIES QUOTED vi THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN i THE RIGHT READING IN THE SCHOOL . . . 17 THE RIGHT READING IN THE HOME 33 THE RIGHT READING IN THE LIBRARY .... 43 THE RIGHT READING, A GRADED LIST 53 A FEW WORDS OF APPROVAL 77 106582 LIST OF AUTHORITIES QUOTED Abernethy, Julian W. Adams, (Dr.) Herbert. American Journal of Education. Arnold, D. C. Arnold, Sarah Louise. Barr, Hope. Beecher, (Supt.) A. D. Bentley, (Supt.) M. E. B. Browning, E. Barrett. Burton, Q, Pierce. Burton, (Prof.) Richard. Channing, William E. Chicago Course of Study. Cleveland, V. D. Cole, (Supt.) W. H. Coler, C. S. Collyer, Robert. Comenius, Jacob. Cook, (Prof.) A. S. Davis, Eben H. Donald, (Dr.) E. W. Emerson, R. W. Field, Walter Taylor. Griffith, (Supt.) Z. A. Hall, (Dr.) G. Stanley. Hall, L. J. Hardy, (Prof.) G. E. Harper's Bazar. Harris, Ada Van Stone. Harris, (Dr.) W. T. Hayden, (Supt.) H. B. Herbart, Johann F. Hewins, (Miss) C. Higginson, T. Wentworth. Hofer, (Mrs.) A. King, (Supt.) Orvis. Knapp, Adeline. Laing, Mary A. Lange, (Dr.) Karl. Lawrence, Isabel. Lewis, (Principal) W. D. Lowe, Mae. Lowell, James Russell. Lubbock, (Sir) John. Lytton, (Lord). Mabie, Hamilton W. Martineau, Harriet. McMurray, (Dr.) Frank. Meghell, (Mrs.) Ida. Miles, (Supt.) A. W. Munsey's Magazine. Norton, (Prof.) Charles Eliot. Norval, Josephine. Parker, (Col.) F. W. Peabody, (Miss). Powell, (Supt.) H. Rein, (Dr.), of Jena. Ring, Orvis. Ruskin, John. School Journal. School Review, The. Scott, Edith A. Scott, (Sir) W. Scudder, Horace E. Shute, (Miss) Katharine H. Slauson, (Supt.) H. M. Smith, (Mrs.) Nora A. Soldan, (Supt.) F. L. Southey, Robert. Spectator, The. Steele, (Supt.) W. L. Stevenson, Robert Louis. Supt. of Schools, Belleville, O. Supt. of Schools, Madison, Wis. Supt. of Schools, Monmouth. Supt. of Schools, Oskaloosa. Supt. of Schools, Saulte Ste. Marie. Supt. of Schools, Springfield, 111. Thomas, A. O. Thoreau, Henry D. Thurber, S. Trollope, Anthony. Van Petten, E. Waid, Gail Hamilton. Warner, Charles Dudley, Winchester, (Prof.) C. T. Wissler, Clark. Ziller (Professor). The Right Reading for Children " Book love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasures that God has prepared for his creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last you until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live." ANTHONY TROLLOPE. " The choice of books, like that of friends, is a serious duty. We are as responsible for what we read as for what we do. The best books elevate us into a region of disinterested thought, where personal objects fade into insignificance, and the troubles and the anxieties of the world are almost forgotten." SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. " Give a boy a passion for books, and you give him thereby a lever to lift his world, and a patent of nobility, if the thing he does is noble." ROBERT COLLYER. The Right Reading for Children IN the vast treasures of our literature there is good material for every stage in the child's mental development, material which is life giving, upbuild- ing and stimulating, and character making, but the quantity is so great that choice must be made by experts, and it is of the utmost importance into whose hands such choice falls, for books should be as carefully selected for children as the food they eat. Young people should be allowed to browse among books which have been selected for them, but not to range free over every field and pasture. As James Russell Lowell says, " Children will be sure to get what they want, and we are doing a grave wrong to their morals by driving them to do things on the sly, to steal that food which their constitution craves, and which is wholesome for them, instead of having it freely and Cmkly given them as the wisest possible diet." Again, books are good for boys and girls only they are ready for them. It often happens that when a child has once taken up a book which has failed to interest him, it has left a memory behind which has prevented him from ever looking into it when he has come across it again later in life. 3 4 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN If he had found the book when he was ready for it, its seeds of wisdom would have fallen on good ground and brought forth abundantly. " Without doubt there is a most favorable period in every child's life for the reading of each book," says Dr. Frank McMurry. " If offered to him at just the right age, it appeals to his nature with peculiar power, even to the extent of setting him on fire ; if offered at any other, it may prove inter- esting, but it fails to become such a potent factor in his life. There would be a wonderful economy of effort if the books selected for children were always given them at this favorable time." Therefore we should provide groups of books for children to select from for themselves not single books for which we think the child ought to be ready at a particular stage of his develop- ment, and force them upon him, but we should let him have a free rein within certain very broad limits. Harriet Martineau says : " The parent's main business is to look to the quantity of the books the children read, and he must see that the children have the freest access to those of the best quality. The child's own mind is a better judge in this case than the parent's suppositions. Let but noble books be on the shelf, and the child will get nothing but good." The late Professor George E. Hardy wrote: "Worthless literature is the curse of the child's THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN 5 intellect and the bane of the child's morals, yet it has the market ; and its widespread distribution and rapid sale are striking testimony alike to the deterioration of the popular taste, and of our defective scheme of elementary education." Charles Dudley Warner says that " good litera- ture is as necessary to the growth of the soul as good air to the growth of the body, and it is just as bad to put weak thoughts into a child's mind as to shut it up in an unventilated room," and says Superintendent E. Van Petten of Bloomington, Illinois: " Give the children literature. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that a child cannot apprehend a story that has depth of meaning; i let us not think that immortal books are for the \cholar only, and hence we must make a book fit for the child. Shall we not accept some expert help ? " Jacob Comenius in his " School of Infancy " tells us that " the principles of poetry arise with the beginning of speech ; for as soon as the child begins to understand words, at the same time it begins to love melody and rhythm. Therefore nurses, when a child, from having fallen or injured itself, is wailing, are wont to solace it with the old nursery rhymes, which please infants so much that they not only become immediately quiet, but even smile. The nurses also, patting them with the hand soothingly, chant the rhymes to the chil- 6 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN dren. In the third and fourth year some such rhymes may be beneficially taught ; in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years the child will increase this knowledge of poetry by committing little verses to memory. Although children may not at this time understand what rhythm or verse is, yet by use they learn to note a certain difference between measured language and prose ; nay, when in due time everything shall be explained in the schools, it will* afford them pleasure to find that they had previously learned something which they now understand the better." As to the place of the Mother Goose literature, Miss Peabody in her Lectures to Kindergartners, says: " It will be found that children who are talked to by Mother Goose and fairy-story tellers learn to talk more quickly than others, and have more vivacity of mind generally, with a power of entering into the minds of others commensurate with their sensibility, and justifying the human sympathies which are often a burden to the un- imaginative, who are nevertheless kind. I have known some parents who would not use Mother Goose or fairy stones with their children, but sub- stituted therefor amusing experiments in physics, the metamorphosis of insects and the classifica- tion of plants according to their differences. Their children became scientific when they grew up, were fine mathematicians, and were interested THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN- 7 in mechanical inventions and natural history; but took comparatively little interest in political and moral problems, though not at all wanting in the social and patriotic affections." " Stories about real or imaginary beings, from epic fairy tales, best supply what a child needs," says Herbart in his Introduction to the " Science and Practice of Education." " They are simple and yet full of imagination; they are morally cul- tivating, for they put situations or relationships before the child which call out the moral judg- ment either in approval or disapproval. As he grows older, and his experience becomes richer, the real in the tales is less cared for, and more interest is taken in the poetical and ideal truth of the aesthetic and ethical, which thus remains as a residue much to be desired, giving an ideal direc- tion to the thoughts, and a higher activity to the intellectual life. If the child came in the tales in contact with nothing but actual realities, his mind would soon become open only to the commonest sensuous impressions, and would have neither sensibility nor receptivity for poetry, nor for the wonder and reverence which is part of religion. Again, all education must start from the indi- vidual, but with the aim of raising the pupil above his individuality, of correcting the tendency of imagination to centre in self, by placing him amidst general human companionships. 8 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN " For the beginning of moral culture, weak and uncertain in itself, will be interfered with by every- thing that makes the individual self the point of reference for the world outside of it. " This danger these tales tend to prevent. They widen out the child's consciousness from self to those about him, from the local to the national, and from the national to all mankind ; they lead him into sympathy with that childlike spirit which was a characteristic of the childhood of the race ; they are a sure means of creating ethical judgment and religious feeling in the simplest relationships within the child's sphere of apperception." " As in every other kind of reading," says Hope Barr, " one ought to use discretion as to the kind and amount of fairy stories for a certain period in the child's life. Of course only the best should be selected, and much depends on the disposition of the child. A highly imaginative child should not be allowed free range, while to the common- place, matter-of-fact one, the fairy story is in- valuable in awakening the hitherto dormant creative faculties." Mrs. Nora Archibald Smith tells us that " we must beware of giving a one-sided development by confining ourselves too much to one branch of literature; we must include in our repertory some well-selected myths, fairy stories which are pure and spiritual in tone, and a fable now and then. THE RIGHT READING FOR CHIL Nature stories, hero tales, animal anecdotes, occa- sional narratives about good, wholesome children, neither prigs nor infant villains, plenty of fine poetry, as has been said, and, for the older ones of the family, legends, allegories, and historic hap- penings. Children feel, as Lord Lytton said, the beauty and the holiness that dwell in the custom- ary and the old ; and they are well pleased and it is best that it should be so with hearing the same old favorites repeated again and again, in song and in story, from their mother's lips." Apropos of this older literature President G. Stanley Hall, tells us to " acquaint the boys with ^Esop's fables and others." Herbart further tells us that " the intent to teach spoils children's books at once ; it is forgot- ten that every one, the child included, selects what suits him from what he reads, and judges the writing as well as the writer after his own fashion. . . . But give to them an interesting story, rich in incidents, relationships, characters, strictly in accordance with psychological truth, and not beyond the feelings and ideas of children ; make no effort to depict the worst or the best, only let a faint half-unconscious moral tact secure that the interest of the action tends away from the bad towards the good, the just, the right, then you will see how the child's attention is fixed upon it, how it seeks to discover the truth and think over all 10 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN sides of the matter, how the many-sided material calls forth a many-sided judgment, how the charm of change ends in preference for the best, so that the boy, who perhaps feels himself a step or two higher in moral judgment than the hero or the author, will cling to his view with inner self- approbation, and so guard himself from a coarse- ness he already feels beneath him. The story must have one more characteristic, if its effect is to be lasting and emphatic, it must carry on its face the strongest and clearest stamp of human greatness. For a boy distinguishes the common and ordinary from the praiseworthy as well as we ; he even has this distinction more at heart than we have, for he does not like to feel himself small; he wishes to be a man. The whole look of a well-trained boy is directed above himself, and when eight years old his entire line of vision extends beyond all histories of children. Present to the boy, therefore, such men as he himself would like to be." President G. Stanley Hall says in his mono- graph on Reading, " wide ranges of words, tropes, and especially of styles, ideas, etc., should be included. If we would give children a good vocabulary of these of their own, which they can command and use, which is a very different thing from being able to understand, this work can hardly begin too early." THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN \ \ " The child before eight is interested in vivid language," says Isabel Lawrence of the Minne- sota normal school; "he cares for action, for color and sense, for the marvellous and the impos- sible; hence he revels in myth and fairy tale. Rhythm attracts him. Even his prose stories should ' run in the ears like the noise of breakers.' From eight to fourteen the boy reads invention and travel, to find out how things are done. Give him this sort of incident in good literature where it embodies truth and thought, and he will soon reject worthless stuff of his own accord." To quote again Dr. G. Stanley Hall : " Many boys enter college who have never read a book through except cheap novels. On the other hand, no one commends a bookish child. But worse than either is the child whose brain is saturated with low or cheap reading, and is altogether illit- erate for all in print that makes the ability to read desirable. In the selection of school reading the children's votes should be carefully taken, though not always as final. Of one hundred and twenty- four Boston schoolboys of thirteen years old, who were asked what book first fascinated them, " Robinson Crusoe," " Mother Goose," " Jack, the Giant Killer," were mentioned in that order of preference by the great majority, and might more readily be allowed young children than most others named. "Cinderella," "Jack and the 12 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN Beanstalk," " Tom Thumb," " Gulliver," " "Red Riding Hood," "Arabian Nights," which came next, are unexceptionable, and should be told every child who has not heard them before coming to school." A writer in the Chicago Course of Study says " If stories are taken out of child-life, it will be crippled and deprived of that which is necessary for subsequent healthy growth." " It is well to remember," writes Katharine Hamer Shute of the Boston normal school, " that a taste for good literature is never established through an acquaintance with second and third rate literature only; and it is equally important to realize that uninteresting, prosy, burdensome lessons in ood literature will not establish a o love for it." And in this connection Horace E. Scudder also said that " the best way to give the best of literature to the child is to share it with him. Books written for children are notably short lived." A recent writer in Mun- seys Magazine likewise remarks that " unhappy is that child whose mind has been fed on the milk and water of children's books, generally written by mediocre writers, when the brilliant, vivid, simple work of the masters lies dust collecting in the library." And to quote Professor A. S. Cook of Yale : " The proper sort of grown-up literature is the best literature for the child. The effort to THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN 13 comprehend something which interests us, but to which our mental grasp is not yet equal, is one of the most valuable means of education." And in like manner Sir Walter Scott wrote : " Children desire impulses of a powerful and important kind from hearing things that they cannot entirely comprehend. It is a mistake to write down to their understanding. Set them on the scent and let them puzzle it out." " Fiction for the adolescent," writes Miss Josephine Norval of the Chillicothe high school, "should stimulate, instruct, and form vigorous, un- tainted conceptions of life. Its legitimate end is threefold, to please, to instruct, and to ennoble. It should foster healthy ambition, fill the mind with sympathy and tenderness for misfortune, and with admiration for brave deeds. Men and women live wrongly when they read wrongly." Mr. W. L. Steele, superintendent of schools at Galesburg, Illinois, says, " When a child has acquired the reading habit, it is only a question of time when he will become an intelligent citizen;" and F. Louis Soldan writes, "Culture and refinement always result from the faithful study of the masterpieces of literature." Professor Richard Burton said in the North American Review, " A piece of literature is an organism and should, therefore, be put before the scholar, no matter how young, with its head on 14 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN and standing on both feet." And finally Professor Charles Eliot Norton sums up the whole matter by saying : " A taste for good reading is an acqui- sition the worth of which is hardly to be over- estimated; and yet a majority of children, even of those favored by circumstance, grow up without it. This defect is due partly to the 'fault or igno- rance of parents and teachers ; partly, also, to the want, in many cases, of the proper means of culti- vation. For this taste, like most others, is usually not so much a gift of nature as a product of culti- vation. A wide difference exists, indeed, in chil- dren in respect to their natural inclination for reading, but there are few in whom it cannot be more or less developed by careful and judicious training. " This training should begin very early. Even before the child has learned the alphabet, his mother's lullaby or his nurse's song may have begun the attuning of his ear to the melodies of verse, and the quickening of his mind with pleasant fancies. As he grows older, his first reading should be made attractive to him by its ease and entertainment. " His very first reading should mainly consist in what may cultivate his ear for the music of verse, and may rouse his fancy. And to this end noth- ing is better than the rhymes and jingles which have sung themselves, generation after generation, THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN 15 in the nursery or on the playground. ' Mother Goose' is the best primer. No matter if the rhymes be nonsense verses ; many a poet might learn the lesson of good versification from them, and the child in repeating them is acquiring the accent of emphasis and of rhythmical form. Moreover, the mere art of reading is the more readily learned if the words first presented to the eye of the child are those which are already famil- iar to his ear. " The next step is easy to the short stories which have been told since the world was young; old fables in which the teachings of long experience are embodied, legends, fairy tales, which form the traditional common stock of the fancies and sen- timent of the race. "These naturally serve as the gate of entrance into the wide open fields of literature, especially into those of poetry. Poetry is one of the most efficient means of education of the moral senti- ment, as well as of the intelligence. It is the source of the best culture. A man may know all science and yet remain uneducated. But let him truly possess himself of the work of any one of the great poets, and no matter what else he may fail to know, he is not without education." The Right Reading for Children in the School " I think that having learned our letters we should read the best that is in literature, and not be forever repeating our a b abs, and words of one syllable, in the fourth or fifth classes, sitting on the lowest and foremost form all our lives. . . . We learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers and classbooks, and when we leave school, the ' Little Reading,' and story books, which are for boys and beginners ; and our reading, our conversation, and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and manikins." " Walden," by THOREAU, written in 1843. " God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead and make us heirs to the spiritual life of past ages. No matter how poor I am, no matter tho' the pros- perous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin enrich me with his practical wisdom I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man tho' ex- cluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live." WILLIAM E. CHANNING. The Right Reading for Children in the School DR. W. T. HARRIS says that "supplementary reading should rather be a systematic course of reading that the pupil pursues by himself and out of school hours. . . . There is no other way to gain a command of good language than to become familiar with the best authors. ... If a begin- ning is made with literature sufficiently childish to interest the pupils, they may be led by their own growing taste and capacity. Far more im- portant is the knowledge of human nature gained by the pupil from literature. For literature is the special storehouse of the experience of the race concerning itself. Genius has recorded in the happiest and most splendid manner its insights into the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of mankind, and each individual may there find lessons that he may learn without paying for them the price of pain and suffering necessary to purchase the original experience. Man suffers vicariously for man, and literature is the revelation of such suffering and the wisdom that has come from it to the race." 19 20 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN " The books chosen for supplementary read- ing," says Professor Albert S. Cook, " must be pure and wholesomely stimulating. Stimulating, since otherwise they will not be read with zest ; whole- somely stimulating, otherwise they leave the mind worse than they found it ; pure, because there are foundations enough of impurity, without intro- ducing new ones into the school curriculum. It must not be an ' adapted ' literature, studiously brought down to the apprehension of children. The extracts chosen must be complete in them- selves, at least as works of literary art. % If anno- tations are provided, they must be few, brief, and confined to essential matters." Eben H. Davis, in " Common School Educa- tion," writes : " Children instinctively take pleas- ure in verse, especially in rhyme. Their delight in Mother Goose melodies, even before they are able to talk, is very manifest. Rhyme and rhythm, even if without sense, please their natu- ral musical taste." Miss Sarah Louise Arnold writes : " Learn what the children like and begin with their likes. The field of literature is well suited to the chil- dren. The best of literature is that which was written for the children of the world. It should not be forgotten that if we would teach the child to like that which is good in reading, we must establish the liking in his early years. It is not IN THE SCHOOL 21 enough that we shall tell him in later days that certain books are good and bid him to read them. When he is grown up he will choose that which he likes, and our work is to lead him to like good things. We cannot, then, begin too early. The very cradle songs should be wisely chosen. The nursery tales should be those which have fed the children of many an age and clime." Mr. H. B. Hayden, superintendent of schools of Rock Island, Illinois, says : " Children, when they first enter the public schools, are not too young to appreciate the beautiful in literature, the story of which comes to them from the lips of their teacher. As soon as they can read simple, connected stories they should be permitted to read and enjoy those gems of child literature in which our supplementary reading abounds. Selected with care and used with skill and system, the supplementary reading prepared for schools may be made a tremendous agency for stimulating the child's interest, and awakening a love for pure and helpful reading." " The German popular fairy tales," says Lange in his "Treatise on Apperception," "have rightly found an abiding place in school instruction. They have great national educational value, since they reflect the thoughts and feelings, the naive view of creation characteristic of the youthful 22 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN period of our people, and since they disclose the noblest traits in the souls of the people, fidelity and moral purity. Above all they are in sym- pathy with the child's way of looking at things, his yearnings and feelings. . . . " The fairy tale is followed by the heroic saga. Their gigantic figures still live on in the mouth and heart of the people, expressing their own strong points and weaknesses with especial vivid- ness. Since the saga treads earthly ways more than the fairy tale, and turns with preference to human figures and deeds, as it connects its tales with definite persons and places, and not seldom mingles with these some real historical facts, so it forms the natural transition from the fairy tale to history; it carries over the imaginative view of the world characteristic of the child into the rational. . . . Why can excellent and favorable books much more surely initiate into the secrets of a good style than a hundred well established paragraphs from a book on style? Because the content and form of speech stand in the closest relation to each other, and the former cannot be given without the latter." " Thus do the fairy tales," says Professor Ziller, " which are at the same time classic materials, to which old and young live to return, lead from the most individual ideas, from which everything must grow that is to become strong, to the most IN THE SCHOOL 23 general, which belongs to man as such. They serve in their sphere both the child nature and the highest purpose of education." Touching the moral value of the fairy tale, Dr. Rein, of Jena, says : " The genuine fairy tale always represents, in the play of the imagination, a deep moral content; for its root is the poetic side of the mind, which clothes a higher truth in visible shapes and delivers it in the form of a story. The fairy tale adds a multitude of ethical con- cepts, which lead beyond the sphere of the imag- ination. Without encouraging any over-hasty moralizing, there is offered abundant opportunity to awaken the ethical judgment, that basis of all ethical evaluation, to develop it and to deduce maxims from it. Ethical ideas are the principal components of fairy tales. Upon these rests the purity that is the characteristic of innocent child nature. In this ethical attraction the principal reason is to be found why the child experiences such a deep satisfaction in the fairy tale, why he manifests such an easy and certain comprehension of it, why he feels such a lively desire for it. The most simple and the most elementary notions in ethical matters are laid down in the fairy tales. But this simplicity facilitates the comprehension ; the judgment is clear and undoubted. To the ethical notions are now added a large number of ideas of another sort, which are objectively com- 24 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN prehensible. For fairy tales, though in many respects remote from reality, yet stand in close touch with the ordinary relations of life." Miss Adeline Knapp says : " It is very desirable that the earliest literature brought to a child's mind should be of a sort to stimulate the imagin- ation and to call out the judgment. Nothing is better adapted to do this than the fairy tale, with its poetic narrations and fancies, and its direct appeal to the young judgment as to the right or the wrong, the wisdom or the folly, of the acts recounted." We quote the following from Miss Mary A. Laing's " Reading ; a Manual for Teachers " : " As soon as possible material drawn from liter- ature should be introduced. Stories from folk- lore, fairy tales, rhymes, and legends that have become children's classics should find their place in the reading hour. The range of this material widens so rapidly that like Philip Gilbert Hamer- ton's good reader, the secret of successful choice is in knowing how to skip judiciously." Clark Wissler, writing on the interest of chil- dren in the reading work of elementary schools, says: " The long story is better remembered than the short one, and also those stories that are in terms of experience that the child can realize him- self are the most natural and lifelike. . . . Young children are interested only in the rhythm of verses IN THE SCHOOL 2$ as found in rhymes of the Mother Goose type, and real poetry wins little recognition before the ado- lescent period. Up to that time poems of senti- ment and thought are ignored for those of action and rhythm." According to Gail Hamilton Waid, "Since children are susceptible to all the influences that surround them, they should have at the very begin- ning of their education our best literature at their disposal ; and, since the main object of literature teaching is character building, soul development, ethical culture, call it what you may, litera- ture should hold a more prominent place than any other subject in the curriculum of our elementary schools." Again, " The range of true classics widens with the child's growing power and interest," says Miss Mary E. Laing in her " Reading ; a Manual for Teachers." " Begin as soon as possible to put whole texts of best things in literature into the reading class. Our reading books, made up of fragments, have helped to develop a taste for scrappy reading, just as they have signally failed to awaken genuine interest in good literature." The superintendent of schools of Madison, Wisconsin, writes : " Believing that it is much more profitable to study continuous selections from our best authors than to spend time in reading commonplace pieces from a reader, our 26 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN aim is to put into the hands of the children early in their school course some of the best books of standard authors. In this way we hope not only to give the children an insight into the most interesting and wholesome literature, but to en- courage the formation of home libraries." The American Journal of Education says: " The teacher has more to do with children's reading than most teachers are aware. It is a high royal privilege to be consulted about a child's reading, and it is one that should never be abused." Samuel Thurber, writing in the School Review, says: " The first duty of the teacher of literature is, therefore, to see that his pupils have abundant opportunities to read good books. Reading must begin early and must never cease. The essential thing to aim at is the acquisition of a store of memorable reading. The teacher must know what the good books are, and must perpetually watch to assure himself that the books he recom- mends are really taking vital hold on minds." Principal W. D. Lewis says that " the child can acquire only from the study of literature that nice sense of the connotation of words which marks the man of culture. The different shades of meaning of the same word, and a discriminat- ing sense of the meaning of synonyms, can be gained only from such study. For purposes of IN THE SCHOOL 2/ ordinary definition the dictionary makers have been obliged to draw widely upon literature to make clear various uses and meanings. Child- hood is the language period, and the child who lacks the formative influence of literature in the grammar school misses the greatest cultural power that can ever be brought upon his speech. The work in literature should be of two kinds, that which is done in school with the aid of the teacher, and that which is done at home under her guidance. It goes without saying that pupils can read more difficult matter with the explana- tions of the teacher than alone. Classes, there- fore, should be supplied with sets of books containing the works of the standard authors, both in the form of selections, like the two series hereafter recommended . . . and complete editions of great pieces of literature, like ' Rob- inson Crusoe,' which are especially adapted to children." Mr. L. A. Griffith, the superintendent of the Danville public schools says: "In the interme- diate and grammar grades we must lead the pupil to an enjoyment of his reading ; help him to see the beauty in the literature he reads ; encourage him to read much at home ; encourage him to read much aloud; only in much reading will he acquire fluency." " When teachers of advanced pupils realize the 28 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN full content of the word reading when they appreciate that they are placing within the reach of the boy that which will be to him a higher life the time will have gone by when they will have to be urged to teach their boys to read," says Miss Edith A. Scott, and Charles Pierce Burton remarks that " by the exercise of a little care, a love of good reading will be fostered in the young, in the possession of which they will always rejoice, and which will augur well for the future of the race." Mr. E. B. Bentley, superintendent of schools of Clinton, Illinois, says that "the value of supple- mentary reading cannot be measured," and the superintendent of schools of Belleville, Ohio, has " never regretted that we put literature in the place of the school readers. We are gradually finding out by trial what books are best fitted to each grade. We are also learning how to teach and direct the reading better; and I hope we shall be able to bring our pupils under the influence of more good books than we can at present." The superintendent of the Monmouth public school says, " We need to go on until every school- room in the city contains a rich supply of supple- mentary reading of the choicest literature." The superintendent of schools of Oskaloosa says : " Teachers are directed to select from the school library, or their own library, good books, IN THE SCHOOL 29 suitable for the age of the pupils of their grade, and read in course to their schools, giving at least thirty minutes per week to this reading of good literature." Mr. H. M. Slanson, superintendent of schools of Ann Arbor, Michigan, says: "In these days of cheap books many of the children will read something. If their selections are not directed . aright, and their tastes cultivated and elevated, their minds will be weakened and their morals contaminated. The public school can render no single service that will be more beneficial to the public than to send out from its doors boys and girls who delight in good literature." Mr. A. D. Beecher, superintendent of schools of Norwalk, Ohio, says : " If young men and women have formed a love of good literature and the habit of intelligent reading by the time they leave our schools, much may be expected of them in the future in improved scholarship and culture. On the other hand, if no taste has been formed in this direction, very little self-improvement may be expected." Principal Julian W. Abernethy, of the Berkeley Institute, Brooklyn, writes as follows : " Indeed, the only logical, just, and wise position for litera- ture is in every year, and every grade, from the bottom to the top of the school course. It must not be treated as a detached subject, with a 30 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN definite beginning and end; literary training is always beginning and never ending. Fortunately literature does not have to be diluted, perverted, or transformed into 'graded lessons' in order to be adapted to the different stages of educational growth. From its vast and varied resources may be selected masterpieces, complete and perfect, suitable for every grade of the school. It is to be studied for the spirit and tone, not for the matter and form ; the story for the story's sake, the poem for the poetry's sake alone." We quote once more from Miss Sarah Louise Arnold, who, in her book, " Reading, How to Teach It," says: "For the sake of giving the children right ideals, we must place before them the best in literature, such literature as will supply not only standards in language, but ideals in character. Their experience, like ours, must be reenforced by the teachings of others, the lessons which have been treasured in books, and these lessons must begin in childhood. It is a mistake to post- pone good literature until the child has mastered word forms and the technique of reading. His love for the good must exist before he begins to read at all, and must be stimulated and strength- ened by means of his reading. At the same time that he becomes master of the mechanics of read- ing he should be endowed with the desire to choose that which is good to read. The work of IN THE SCHOOL 31 the teacher, therefore, is to establish ideals, to quicken desire, to strengthen right tendencies, to lead to wise choices. These belong to the teach- ing of reading, and should assume quite as impor- tant a place as does the mastery of words or fluency in expression." Miss Mae Lowe, librarian of Circleville, Ohio, says " that the volumes which are usually in- cluded in the category 'Supplementary Reading for Children ' have raised the standard of juvenile literature, there can be no doubt. And there is every reason to believe that as these little volumes become better known their use will increase among those who are training children. And as they become more and more used they will displace the sensational story book, which makes for the neurotic novel of later years. Only by the substitution of good will evil be driven out." Mr. Harry Powell, formerly superintendent at Washington, D. C, says : " The school reading should consist not only of classics, but of complete classics. We should give the whole of the story, and not mere extracts, such as have furnished most of the contents of the readers for the upper grades. If the account of Robinson Crusoe's shipwreck is interesting, the whole narrative of his life on his desolate island is much more interesting. If it is well for a class to read about the marriage of Miles Standish, it is better for them to read the 32 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN whole poem. Complete classics should be used because they awaken and maintain a keener in- terest, and give a deeper insight into the author's thought, enabling the reader to follow the argu- ment, and furnishing a mental drill that can be gotten from no mere extract. The persons of the story are seen in greater fulness, the character- delineation is more graphic and connected, and consequently the moral ideas appear in greater strength and richness." There should be no doubt left in the mind of the reader of the foregoing statements on the subjects of the right reading for children in the school and of " supplementary reading," from those best qualified to speak as to its place and value, of the importance of the right choice of books for this purpose, and of giving the chil- dren a wide scope of reading material. The Right Reading for Children in the Home " So, when my nurse comes in for me, Home I return across the sea, And go to bed with backward looks At my dear land of story-books." ROBERT Louis STEVENSON. " But the old books, the old books, the mother loves them best ; They leave no bitter taste behind to haunt the youthful breast : They bid us hope, they bid us fill our hearts with visions fair ; They do not paralyze the will with problems of despair. And as they lift from sloth and sense to follow loftier pains, And stir the blood of indolence to bubble in the veins : Inheritors of mighty things, who own a lineage high, We feel within us budding wings that long to reach the sky : To rise above the commonplace, and through the cloud to soar, And join the loftier company of grander souls of yore. Then as she reads each magic scene, the firelight burning low, How flush the cheeks ! how quick, how keen, the heart-beats come and go ! The mother's voice is soft and sweet, the mother's look is kind, But she has tones that cause to beat all passions of the mind ; And Alice weeps, and Jack inspired rides forth a hero bold ; So master passions, early fired, burn on when life is cold." The Spectator. The Right Reading for Children in the Home \ EVERY teacher knows that the brightest and aptest pupils are, generally speaking, the children who read the best books at home. Indeed, what the children read out of school is, perhaps, more important than what they read in school, for they will read of their own choice the books they like, and the books we like are the books which influence us. " Books," as Bulwer says, " sug- gest thoughts, thoughts become motives, motives prompt to action. Man is a complicated piece of machinery. Hundreds of nerves and muscles must act and react for the slightest turn of the body. Yet the very wind of a word, a casual hint or association, can set the whole in motion and produce an action. Actions repeated form habits and determine the character, fixed and firm and immovable, for good or for evil." As soon as the child has acquired the power of getting at the sense of the printed page, the taste for the good or the bad in literature may begin to grow, and it may do so even while he is acquiring this power. Then he enters on the perilous path 35 36 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN so well described by Mrs. Browning in " Aurora Leigh " : - " To thrust his own way, he an alien, through The world of books. The world of books is still the world. The worldlings in it are less merciful and more puissant, For the wicked here Are winged like angels. Every knife that strikes Is edged with elementary fire to assail a spiritual life." Many of the public libraries do a great work in guiding children's reading, but hundreds of thousands of parents need enlightenment as to the right books to place in the way of their boys and girls. To direct parents how wisely to choose the books their children should read is a problem well worth the attention of teachers, and it is far more important than most people are apt to consider it. Not only are there the vicious books which children find on the news-stands, or which are brought to their attention by other means, but there is a vast quantity of weak and frivolous material not precisely or immediately harmful, perhaps, but which ought to give place to stronger, sounder, and more healthful mental food. The reading of newspapers and magazines, for example, which are placed almost unreservedly in the hands of children all over the country, tends to beget a loose habit of mind, and to weaken the power of sustained concentration in reading. IN THE HOME 37 Many and many a grown-up person has had cause to regret the hours of useless reading which he has frittered away, thus destroying his power of getting at the content of more valuable, serious, and solid books with which, when it is too late to do so without enormous effort, he desires to make himself familiar. It is scarcely possible to realize the extent of the influence that indiscriminate newspaper and novel reading has in presenting distorted views of human life, of human environment, and of human character. Many a boy and girl are in a constant state of expecting something to turn up which will change their lives in some wonderful way, after the fashion of some story they have read, and they are thus made more or less unfitted for the practical realities of life and for the every- day conditions which surround them. Instead of manfully obeying the old English motto, " Do the next thing," they are always waiting for some great and unexpected turn of fortune which will place them beyond their present surroundings in some lofty imagined sphere. As John Ruskin says, " The best romance becomes dangerous if by its excitement it renders the ordinary course of life uninteresting, and increases the morbid thirst for scenes in which we shall never be called upon to act." Few people to-day ever think of opening the 38 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN pages of Southey's " Doctor," but there is a pas- sage to be found there on the influence of books which is worthy of printing in letters of gold. He says : " Would you know whether the ten- dency of a book is good or evil, examine in what state of mind you lay it down. If it induces you to suspect that what you have been accustomed to think unlawful may after all be innocent, and that may be harmless which you have hitherto been taught to think dangerous ... if so ... throw the book into the fire, whatever name it may bear upon the title-page. Throw it into the fire, young man ! Young lady, away with the whole set, although it should be the prominent feature in a rosewood bookcase ! " Says Hamilton W. Mabie, " No greater good can befall a child than to be born into a home where the best books are read, the best music interpreted, the best talk enjoyed; for in these privileges the richest educational opportunities are supplied." " A pure, sweet-flavored set of children's books," says Mrs. Andrea Hofer, "ought to be in every growing household. They would cost no more than many of our meaningless decorations. The nucleus of a child's library often lies in one good book, and the addition of five or ten each year will make a fine start if they are chosen for lasting quality." IN THE HOME 39 And Walter Taylor Field urges that " every child should have his little bookcase in the nurs- ery, or, better yet, a shelf in the library which he may call his own." Miss Katharine H. Shute, of the Boston nor- mal school, says that " values of literature remain pure matters of theory unless we arouse and develop in our school children so genuine an in- terest in good reading that it will outlast the school days, will be indeed so vital a part of their life that they will turn to literature as a matter of course for recreation in their leisure, and will carry away from it, equally as a matter of course, intelli- gence and inspiration for their work. The real test of interest lies in whether or not the child reads out of school and in what he reads." " Teachers can do much for their pupils," says the superintendent of schools of Springfield, Illi- nois, " by directing their work so that they will become interested in reading good books outside of school." The superintendent of schools of Sault Ste. Marie says, " Create in the mind of the child a desire to have a library, small though it will necessarily be at first, and above all to know what is contained between the covers of each book." " Begin with a few books," says Harper s Bazar, " wisely selected, then add to these very gradually, 40 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN leaving the selection largely to the carefully super- vised taste of the young reader. The importance of the choice of these first books can hardly be overestimated." Miss Ida Meghell, principal of the Bryant School, Chicago, Illinois, says : " If we could pro- vide plenty of good reading for every family it would save a vast amount of time and effort in the schools' English teaching. If good simple story books of second and third reader grade were as abundant even as the more difficult juvenile books, the habit of reading, thinking, and speak- ing in English could be formed much earlier than it is now. But all our efforts to push children into reading lessons too difficult for them kill the desire to read." " When my boy comes home," says C. S. Coler, " and asks for a quarter to buy a book to read I am pleased. When he saves his pennies and buys it for himself I am delighted. Children should be encouraged to build up 'libraries' of their own. The teacher who can inspire her children with the love of good books deserves many marks placed to her credit." Dr. Herbert Adams writes, " Surely the home should cooperate with the library by the example of the reading habit, and by the direction of the reading of the children ; while it would be an ex- cellent thing for parents to pursue lines of read- IN THE HOME 41 ing that would keep them in touch with the chil- dren's studies." " We cannot overestimate," says A. O. Thomas, "the value of an appreciation of good literature as a part of a young person's equipment for life. The world is full of evil literature, the reading of which is contagious, and unless much care is exer- cised in directing his reading the child is liable to go astray. I am of the opinion that the home is the proper place for the library, and that the parents are the proper ones to supervise the read- ing therefrom. But all homes cannot afford it ; all parents are not capable, and many are not dis- posed to direct such work. Hence, the school must do it. There are many homes, however, where such work is successfully done. Every community has its examples. The children from such homes are easily selected from their mates. As a rule their actions are more refined, their per- ception keener, their judgments more mature, and their progress more marked." L. J. Hall, of Jefferson City, Missouri, says : " The people generally seem to be thoroughly alive to the importance of placing good, inspiring litera- ture within the reach of all the boys and girls, and are supporting cordially every movement in this direction. The boy who has the reading habit so thoroughly fixed that he would rather read a good book after supper than loaf on the streets is safe." 42 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN One of the most important matters which all concerned in education have to deal with, is the consideration of what can be done to get the best books into the hands of the children. There can be used with immense power in this connection a threefold cord which will not be easily broken, and the strands which compose it are the home, the school, and the library. In the home influence may be brought to bear by parents by wise selection of the books which their children should read and should buy, for it is held to be of the greatest importance to encour- age children to buy their own books at as early a date as possible. Every parent who can afford it should let his children have money to spend for books, so that they may begin the formation of a library in their childhood. They would prize the books the more, and the possession of books from the beginning teaches children, more than any- thing else, to love and care for their little library. Parents should see to it that they rouse the inter- est of their children in books, and keep it alive. They should discuss books with their children, and acquaint themselves with the classics for children, find out what books their children are reading and read them themselves. The Right Reading for Children in the Library " That book is good Which puts me in a working mood. Unless to Thought is added Will, Apollo is an imbecile. What parts, what gems, what colors shine, Ah, but I miss the grand design." RALPH WALDO EMERSON. " W 7 hen We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth, 'Tis then we get the right good from a book." ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. The Right Reading for Children in the Library BUT the best literature must beset the child on every side, or he will be tempted to stray to the news-stand or will in other ways get hold of litera- ture which is injurious to him. He must find it not only in the home and in the school, but in the school library and in the public library. The work of choosing the books for the last named should be done by experts in the evaluation of books for children, whose judg- ment none can question. Dr. G. Stanley Hall, in his " Monograph on Reading," says : " Every young person should, before leaving school, have experienced the charm of freely ranging through a library of solid, sub- stantial books, and where school libraries are practicable, its use should not only be as unre- stricted as possible, but plenty of school time should be devoted to the utilization of all its resources. Children will not voluntarily dull their wits by struggling with books far above them, and are not harmed by what is not under- stood, but often tumble rapidly through great 45 46 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN books, picking out with strange facility what is of use to them, and what no one would ever dream of suggesting to them." Colonel Francis W. Parker says that " the sup- plementary reading movement has been the most widespread and most efficient of any movement ever started in this country. It reached the libra- ries, and countless school boards took it up. It started the idea of travelling libraries so prevalent in the West. It created a great demand for bet- ter reading." " Show the parents the practical value of a library in school work and you can undoubtedly secure their cooperation in the securing of it," writes D. Cleveland of South Haven. " Every country school, as well as village school, should and can have a library," says D. C. Arnold, of Elk Garden, West Virginia. L. J. Hall, of Jefferson City, Iowa, has said that " there is nothing that contributes so much as reading toward giving direction and purpose to the life of youth. Well-selected, well-managed libraries are among our very best educational instrumentalities. It is hoped that every teacher, school officer, and patron will put forth an earnest effort to procure some of these good books for the children." The School Journal says: " Nothing, of course, can take the place of the library in the home, but IN THE LIBRARY 47 there is a very good substitute in the school library. To the children of homes where poverty or gross materialism reigns, these school collec- tions offer a unique means for wider interests, finer culture. They stand in a measure in loco parentis, teaching the child through what means great and good men have become good and great ; how honesty, purity, gentleness, and temperance sweeten and glorify a life." Miss Mary A. Laing, in her " Reading; a Manual for Teachers," writes : " Every schoolroom should have its own little collection of choice books adapted to the stage of development of the children, and in the periods of leisure before school, after school, at the rainy-day recess, or in the leisure moments of finished lessons, the chil- dren should be allowed to use these books freely. We should remember that the average home represented by the children in the public schools has a meagre stock of best books for children ; and we should remember, too, that the public library does not as a rule provide for the needs of young children, nor does it attempt to form the taste of any child." Mr. Orvis King, superintendent of public in- struction, Carson City, Nebraska, says: " It appears to me that the legislature should take some steps to provide libraries for the schools ; that a law should be enacted authorizing and compelling 48 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN districts to use a certain portion of their annual appropriation from the county fund in establish- ing and maintaining school libraries. The stu- dent has a deeper and livelier interest in his studies, and a taste for good reading is aroused, and a gentleness and refinement, which comes from contact with best thoughts, pervades the schoolroom, better attendance is assured, and a desire for a higher and broader education results, and thus better citizenship is vouchsafed." Superintendent A. W. Miles, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, says : " Communities are reformed by proper formation of their children. All culture tendencies have their beginnings in childhood. Standards of taste and intelligence are formed in the growing generation. It is in promoting right literary beginnings in children at school that the librarian most surely controls later cultural con- ditions. The library must also encourage mas- terly study by facilitating research in all lines of school work. And it must see that pupils are taught how to use books. If the use of the library is made a vital feature of their school life it cer- tainly will continue necessary to them after they have gone from the class-room." Superintendent W. H. Cole of Huntington, West Virginia, says : " Many a child who would never think of visiting a public library for the purpose of drawing books to read, might be in- IN THE LIBRARY 49 duced to read books if they were brought into his immediate presence and his attention called to them. By having a judiciously selected library in the schoolroom, and by becoming acquainted with the contents of the books, the teacher may suggest to pupils how to read them, what to look for. Were I to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead, under every variety of circum- stance, and be a source of happiness and cheer- fulness to me during life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon us, it would be a taste for reading. Give, a man this taste and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making him a happy man; unless, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse selection of books. You place him in contact with the best society in every period of history with the wisest, the wittiest, the ten- derest, the bravest, and the purest characters who have adorned humanity. You make him a deni- zen of all sections, a contemporary of all ages. The world has been created for him." It is very evident from the paper read by Miss C. Hewins, of the Hartford Public Library, at the Waukesha Conference of Librarians in July, 1901, on the subject of the practical value to children's librarians of book reviews, lists and articles in 50 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN' newspapers, and from the discussions that ensued, that they are held of little account by librarians and are practically useless to them in their work of selection because the critics to whom the books are intrusted for review, have, as a rule, no special fitness for their task. And it was made very clear also that librarians, teachers, and parents needed some other guidance and counsel in the selection of books for children. Hence we have brought together in these pages a body of opinions, put forward by prominent edu- cators and others interested in the welfare of youth, which, it is hoped, may serve in some measure as a guide to those who are seeking the principles which should underlie the selection of the right reading for children ; and, in accordance with these sentiments, which those who have to do with chil- dren will endorse, we have caused to be selected and edited by well-known judges and writers over one hundred books for children, for school, home, and library, books which we have classified for children of all ages, of which the opinions printed at the end of the list, among others, have already been received. Except the books for teaching the child to read, and a few others, this list is made up of complete works chosen from the world's best literature. In making the selection we have not relied upon our own choice, nor on that of one editor alone, but to this task we have IN THE LIBRARY 51 brought the ripe wisdom and judgment of more than three hundred men and women actively con- nected with education or otherwise interested in the welfare of the young and their reading. These experts, including the best known people in the educational and literary world, have voted on a carefully prepared list of several hundred books suitable for children and these books represent the first choice of these advisers. The classified list of books will be found on pages 53 et seq. All of the books in this classified graded list may be had of D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, New York, and Chicago, at the prices quoted. BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE Should be carefully selected by qualified persons. Should be literature, not simply " reading matter." Should not be mere compilations or extracts. Should be interesting. Should not be chosen to point morals but should nevertheless lead in moral direc- tion. Should be provided in ample variety, to suit all tastes and all ages. Should give education in literature, and foster a taste for good reading ; and thus Should include, not only the classics written for children, but many of the interesting masterpieces of literature for adults. Should have illustrations which illustrate and elucidate the text, and not simply adorn the volume. Should be printed in type which can be easily read, in lines not long enough to fatigue the eye. Should not be so heavy as to tire the child. Should be bound strongly and serviceably, and open easily. All these requirements are met in the books in the following list : The Right Reading for Children of All Ages FIRST AND SECOND YEARS Books from which to teach the child to read and for the children's own first reading, including the nursery rhymes which will cultivate the ear for the music of verse, and the fables, legends, and fairy tales, which form the common stock of the fancies and sentiments of the race. The Beginner's Reader By FLORENCE BASS, author of " Plant Life " and " Animal Life." Boards. Fully illustrated with many colored pictures. 118 pages . 25 cents. The interest of children is at once awakened by this little book. It begins with nature study and tells about little people of other countries. A great number of easy lessons is given, the same words are repeated many times, and but few new words are introduced into each lesson. An Illustrated Primer By SARAH FULLER, Principal of the Horace Mann School, Boston. Boards. 103 pages 25 cents. This primer presents the " word method " in a form attrac- tive to little children. The unique illustrations of words and sentences will be found a great help in teaching correct pronun- ciation. The book is especially suited to the needs of evening schools, and to pupils who do not speak English as their mother- tongue. 53 54 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN A Primer By ANNA B. BADLAM. Boards. Illustrated. 131 pages . 25 cents. Simplicity, variety, and gradual development are noteworthy features. Skilful use is made of phonics in the vocabulary exer- cises. Word coloring and sentence building are especially em- phasized. A Primer of Work and Play By EDITH GOODYEAR ALGER. Cloth. 128 pages. Illustrated in col- ors 30 cents. A very attractive primer containing over 100 pages of reading with small vocabulary, all new words given at the beginning of lessons, and short sentences throughout. The lessons have a definite aim and are on subjects interesting to all children. Although beautifully illustrated, it is distinctively a reading-book and not a picture-book. It combines thoroughly sound pedagogy with new and original features. Lessons for Little Readers By E. G. REGAL. Cloth. Illustrated in colors. 120 pages. 30 cents. This book presents a unique and practical series of lessons that have grown out of the experience of a remarkably success- ful teacher. The great variety of material used is correlated, and affords scope for imagination and for independent obser- vation. The book also provides ample drill in sentence forms without monotony. Seat work in connection with language, number, color, and drawing, and also appropriate and pleasing songs are features. Glimpses of Nature for Little Folks By K. A. GRIEL, State Normal School, California, Pa. Boards. 109 pages 30 cents. This book appeals directly to child interests and is suggestive of light and life and beauty. The text is splendidly illustrated, many of the pictures being in colors. FIRST AND SECOND YEARS 55 Mother Goose A Book of Nursery Rhymes, arranged by CHARLES WELSH. In two parts. Illustrated by CLARA E. ATWOOD. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, each part, 10 cents; cloth, two parts bound in one . 30 cents. An entirely new presentation of the ever-attractive Mother Goose Rhymes and Jingles the child's first introduction to rhyme and rhythm. They are arranged in four divisions of (i) mother play, (2) mother stories, (3) child play, and (4) child stories, adapted to the natural development of the intellectual powers of the child. The illustrations are just what the child can understand and appreciate at this stage, as they are drawn for the child himself and not for the ordinary buyer of Holiday Gift Books. Heart of Oak Books Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Vol. I. Cloth. 128 pages. 25 cents. The old childish rhymes and jingles and some of the most widely known fables and stories. Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. Six Nursery Classics The House That Jack Built; Mother Hubbard; Cock Robin; The Old Woman and Her Pig; Dame Wiggins of Lee, and Three Bears. Edited by M. V. O'Shea. Illustrated by ERNEST FOSBERY. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth . . .20 cents. " These stories which naturally take their place in the child's reading immediately after the Nursery Rhymes and Jingles are," says Professor O'Shea, " full of life and movement and heroic deeds. They present situations which are not altogether im- possible in the child's own life, and he is transported by them into the realms inhabited by the character of the tale, and he adopts their conduct, condensing his own sphere of action by this means." They are told in the simple, direct, straightforward language with which they first caught the ear of the people when the world was young, and they introduce the child to his first friend- ship with fiction. For this early stage of the child's acquaintance with books, the pictures will keep pace with the child's growing power of understanding them, always preceding him by a few steps. 56 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN Old World Wonder Stories Whittington and His Cat; Jack the Giant-Killer; Jack and the Bean- stalk ; Tom Thumb. Edited by M. V. O'SHEA. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth . . . .20 cents. This collection will come in the early stage of the child's Fairy Tale reading. The stories are to be found in the oldest litera- ture of the race. They attract and thrill, while they satisfy the needs of the childish imagination, and leave nothing which will need to be afterwards eradicated. " We must," says Professor O'Shea, " give the child a lift up toward the refined aspects of moral courage by affording him a chance to try himself first with the grosser forms of physical courage. These stories show the mind of man stimulating itself to bravery by the recounting of deeds requiring the greatest daring and cour- age. In the plan of growth of all things simplicity and crudity lie as means to the end of complexity and refinement, and hence these stories have always in the past and should in the present find a place in children's literature." Perault's Tales of Mother Goose Translated by CHARLES WELSH, with an introduction by M. V. O'SHEA. Illustrated after DORE. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth 20 cents. These are the famous fairy tales in which children have de- lighted for hundreds of years past. They are presented as the great Frenchman first collected them from the lips of the people, and in the earliest translation made into English, which is in the style that best befits the subject. They stimulate and nourish those qualities that are of supreme worth in individual and social life those attributes of character that we are seeking to develop in all educational work. Craik's So Fat and Mew Mew Introduction by LUCY M. WHEELOCK. Illustrated by C. M. HOWARD. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth, 20 cents. A charming little tale, told in simple, easy language, which beginners in reading can understand. It is a continuous story, but the events are so woven together that it does not demand long continuous reading to get at a satisfactory incident. The events are the events of childhood, moving simply and naturally, and the results which flow from them appeal to that sense of propriety and reason often so conspicuous in normal children, even of the youngest: SECOND AND THIRD YEARS $? SECOND AND THIRD YEARS Books which bring to the child the knowledge which will appeal to his awakening interest in outdoor life, books which acquaint him with the lives of other children, and books which ftirnish him ^vith some of the classic stories which have been specially written for him. Heart of Oak Books Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Illustrated. Vol. II. Cloth. 176 pages . . . 35 cents. In this volume favorite fables and nursery tales are introduced, according to the purpose of the editor throughout the series, as helps in the cultivation of taste and in the healthy development of the imagination. A First Reader By ANNA B. BADLAM. Boards. Illustrated. 1 70 pages . 30 cents. New and valuable word-building exercises add interest to the work. Carefully graded writing lessons and exercises for desk work are excellent and novel features. Stories of Old Greece By EMMA M. FIRTH. Cloth. 1 08 pages. Illustrated.. 75 cents. Boards 30 cents. An admirable collection of Greek myths which will greatly help the children of the present to understand the thought of the childhood of the race. Crib and Fly: A Tale of Two Terriers Edited by CHARLES F. DOLE. Illustrated by GWENDOLINE SANDHAM. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth, 20 cents. Stories about animals, told in simple language and attractive style, have a charm for children of a very early age. This is a story which has been popular for many years on both sides of 58 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN the Atlantic, and will be welcomed in this, the cheapest and most attractive form in which it has ever been published. The pictures will extend the child's acquaintance with or deepen its impressions of animal life. " Children instinctively love animals," says the Editor, " and naturally like to read about what they love. This story tends to encourage and develop affection for the animal creation, and to strengthen and deepen that love of humanity which is part of the true education of the individual. Stories such as this should therefore have a distinct place in the child's reading." Goody Two Shoes Attributed to OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Edited by CHARLES WELSH. With twenty-eight illustrations after the woodcuts in the original edition of 1765. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth 20 cents. " Goody Two Shoes " will always deserve a place among the classics of childhood for its literary merit, the purity and lofti- ness of its tone, and its sound sense, while the whimsical, con- fidential, affectionate style which the author employs makes it attractive even to children who have long since passed the spelling-book stage of existence. The Story of a Donkey By Madame DE SEGUR. Translated by CHARLES WELSH. Edited by C. F. DOLE. Illustrated by E. H. SAUNDERS. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth . . . .20 cents. Madame de Segur's stories are among the most popular books for children in France. The story of a donkey is charmingly told in vivid and lifelike manner, and in language exactly suited to children at the age when they all delight to read about ani- mals while the lessons it conveys are those which should be inculcated at this or any other stage. The pictures are truthful and pleasing. Sophie Adapted from the French of Madame DE SEGUR by CHARLES WELSH. Illustrated by EUGENE PRAND. Edited by Miss ADA VAN STONE HARRIS. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth, 20 cents. Of this famous French classic Miss Ada Van Stone Harris says : " The value of the story lies in the fact that it embodies SECOND AND THIRD YEARS 59 truths so well wrought out that whether read to the child or by the child they will unconsciously lift the mind to higher activities, and develop that keen feeling that makes for noble action." The History of the Robins By Mrs. TRIMMER. Edited by EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Illustrated by C.M.HOWARD. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth 20 cents. The story of " Dicksy, Pecksy, and Flapsy " is a perennial favorite with English-speaking children, and this edition is the cheapest and the prettiest yet put upon the market. The pic- tures are drawn after the many famous artists who have illus- trated different editions. Eyes and No Eyes, and Other Stories By Dr. AIKEN and Mrs. BARBAULD. Edited by M. V. O'SHEA. Illus- trated by H. P. BARNES and C. M. HOWARD. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth . . . .20 cents. A story which has been almost forgotten in the flood of modern material, but which, if Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Kingsley are to be trusted, should never be left out of children's reading. In pleasant style, it shows the value of keeping one's eyes open and teaches the important art of " How to observe," w r hich is the real foundation of all knowledge. The book contains also " The Three Giants " by Mrs. Marcet, and two other short stories. It is illustrated in a manner which may be styled annotative ; thajt is, the illustrations are equal to anno- tation of the text. Waste Not, Want Not, and Other Stories By MARIA EDGEWORTH. Edited by M. V. O'SHEA. Illustrated by W. P. BODWELL. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents ; cloth . . .20 cents. These are stories with a moral, it is true, but so full of action, of life, and interest that the moral will not be seen or detected till its influence is felt. They belong to a period in our litera- ture when the language was perhaps more sedate, but certainly not less elegant, than it is now. The pictures will give an idea of the customs and manners of a by-gone time. 60 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN The King of the Golden River By JOHN RUSKIN. Edited by M. V. O'SHEA. Illustrated by SEARS GAL- LAGHER. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth 20 cents. Professor O'Shea says : " I know of nothing better calculated to entertain and to exert a wholesome influence upon the young than this tale. If a teacher or a parent will permit his children to read the story, saying nothing whatever to them about it, he will discover how vividly its scenes get wrought into their con- versations, their plays, and their games ; and then he will realize how effectively Ruskin has taught his lesson." The Wonderful Chair and The Tales It Told By FRANCES BROWNE. Edited by M. V. O'SHEA. Illustrated by CLARA E. ATWOOD after Mrs. SEYMOUR LUCAS. In two parts. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, each part, 10 cents; cloth, two parts bound in one 30 cents. " The Wonderful Chair " is a favorite that has been out of print for years, but it is worthy of a place in such a library of children's literature as this. Mrs. Seymour Lucas, the wife of the eminent painter, has illustrated this story once for all, and her pictures have been drawn upon for this edition. Professor O'Shea says : " I cannot too highly commend the stories of ' The Wonderful Chair.' The'y are, though set in an atmosphere of the wonderful, full of happenings which are always real and possible, the characters are concrete and natural, and the incidents are related in a most pleasing style." Seaside and Wayside By JULIA McNAiR WRIGHT. Cloth. Illustrated. No. I, 95 pages. 25 cents. No. II, 184 pages 35 cents. This series is intented to awaken in children a taste for scien- tific study, to develop their power of attention, and to encourage thought and observation, by directing their minds to the living things about them. My Saturday Bird Class Edited by MARGARET MILLER. Boards. 112 pages. Illustrated 25 cents. A graphic account of familiar birds and an eye-opener for practical observation by young folks. The book is expressly adapted for the spring months. SECOND AND THIRD YEARS 6 1 From September to June with Nature By MINETTA L. WARREN. Boards. 196 pages. Illustrated . 35 cents. In this reader the work is divided into months. Each lesson is drawn from the previous one and emphasizes the preparation of plant and animal life for winter, " the going to sleep " of nature, and its glad awakening in the spring. The book con- tains numerous quotations from the poets, and is beautifully illustrated. Plant Life By FLORENCE BASS. Revised and enlarged edition. 158 pages 25 cents. Designed to teach some of the most interesting facts about plants through stories presenting the life and growth of individ- ual plants, in terms of human life. This puts the child in touch with Nature. Animal Life By FLORENCE BASS. Boards. 183 pages. Illustrated . . 35 cents. Contains chiefly stories of inseqts, illustrating their varied means of self-protection, their methods of home-building, of caring for their young, transformations, etc. These stories will lead the child to observe such life in its natural environment. Leaves and Flowers Or Plant Stories for Young Readers. By MARY A. SPEAR. Boards. in pages. Illustrated 25 cents. Reading intended to acquaint children with plant words and plants themselves. New words and thoughts are repeated in short, simple sentences, and a sure command of language is gained by dealing with strictly denned ideas. Docas The Indian Boy of Santa Clara. By GENEVRA SISSON-SNEDDEN. Cloth. 1 60 pages. Twenty-seven full-page illustrations . 35 cents. This attractive story of the life of the Indian of southern Cali- fornia is suited to the use of intermediate classes. It portrays 62 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN the habits and customs of a race of rare good qualities, and gives an accurate picture of life in California just before it be- came a part of the United States. Such a book can serve an important end as an introduction to geography and history. America's Story for America's Children By MARA L. PRATT. Five volumes. Handsomely bound. Effectively illustrated. Book I. " The Beginner's Book." Cloth. 135 pages. 8vo. Large type. Four full-page illustrations in color . . -35 cents. A delightful story-book for children, developing centres of interest through picturesque and personal incidents connected with the greater events of our history. The charm of romance is combined with accurate and important history in this volume. America's Story for America's Children By MARA L. PRATT. Five volumes. Handsomely bound. Effectively illustrated. Book II. " Exploration and Discovery." Cloth. 160 pages 40 cents. Tells the story of the great discoverers and explorers from Leif Ericson to Henry Hudson. It gives a vivid description of the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch navigators, and of the simple life of the aborigines. Numerous and authentic illus- trations. A story that is as attractive as romance. FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS Books which appeal to the child' $ awakened interest in Nature ; books which acquaint him witJi the lives of chil- dren in other lands and in other times, and books which fiirnisJi him with many of the classic stories. Heart of Oak Books Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Cloth. Illustrated. Vol. III. 265 pages 45 cents. In this volume of the series are some of the best poems of childhood, old stories, fairy tales and ballads, in keeping with the aim of the series to provide the means for culture through good reading. ^FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS 63 Stories of Long Ago By GRACE H. KUPFER. Boards. Beautifully illustrated. 170 pages 35 cents. In charming style, about forty of the most interesting Greek myths and legends are told for children. The book also con- tains a large number of the best short poems based on the myths of the Greeks. The Rose and the Ring By WILLIAM THACKERAY. A Fairy Tale. Edited by EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Illustrations by THACKERAY. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 15 cents; cloth 25 cents. This is one of the most delightful and amusing books for children and has been too little known. This edition contains all the author's drawings for the work as well as the curious rhyming head-lines. It has been said that Thackeray has been as successful in this his only effort at writing for children as in his books for older people. Three Fairy Stories By JEAN INGELOW. Edited by CHARLES F. DOLE. Illustrated by E. RIPLEY. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth 20 cents. The graceful fancy, the pure and free English, and the lofty lessons conveyed in all Jean Ingelow's stories for children, with no obtrusion of the moral, entitle her to a very high place in the ranks of successful writers for the little ones. Child Life in Japan And Japanese Child Stories. By Mrs. M. CHAPLIN AYRTON. Edited by WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. Illustrated by Japanese artists. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth . . 20 cents. Mrs. Chaplin Ayrtorf lived long in Japan and took a keen interest in the people and their beautiful country, and in 1879 she published this book in a very gorgeous and expensive edition. Mr. William Elliot Griffis, who introduced the American school system into Japan and is therefore well qualified to speak, calls it a " true picture of the old Japan " which is fast passing away. 64 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN Jackanapes By Mrs. EWING. Edited by W. P. TRENT. Illustrated by JOSEPHINE BRUCE. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth 20 cents. This is one of Mrs. Ewing's charming tales, teaching lessons of manliness and truth, and written in that style which has gained for her so many thousands of sympathetic readers both young and old. Professor Trent says, " It is too well known to require praise, ahd its fitness for such a series as this is incontestable." The Little Lame Prince By Miss MULO^K. Preface by ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD. Illus- trated by Miss E. B. BARRY. In two parts. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, each part, 10 cents; cloth, two parts bound in one 30 cents. " The story is as full of interest as if it had not a moral to its name. It is genuine fairy-work, interlaced with the unex- pected, alive with marvels. You will shudder before the inac- cessible steeps of the Hopeless Tower ; you will grow dizzy when you look from the skies in the travelling cloak ; you will thrill with the joy of freedom when the Prince floats out of his prison, and you are one of his heartiest subjects, when he comes to his throne, as all wronged Princes ought to do." The Adventures of Ulysses By CHARLES LAMB. Edited by W. P. TRENT. Illustrations after FLAX- MAN. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 15 cents; cloth 25 cents. " It would seem hard," says Professor Trent, " to find a book that ought so well to serve young readers as a starting-point for the exploration of imaginative literature as Lamb's ' Adventures of Ulysses,' which has long been a favorite with readers young and old. It brings the child in contact with the ' Odyssey,' - that fountain head of romance, perhaps the most fascinating single book in the world, and also with Lamb himself, one of the most charming of all English prose writers." FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS 65 Gulliver's Travels I. A Voyage to Lilliput. II. A Voyage to Brobdingnag. By Dean SWIFT. Edited by T. M. BALLIET. Fully illustrated. In two parts. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, each part, 15 cents; cloth, one vol 30 cents. No liberties have been taken with the text of this famous book except to remove the obvious blemishes which unfit it for young people's reading. The illustrations are after the work of one of the best artists who have pictured these stories. " For young children the book combines in a measure the interest of ' Robinson Crusoe ' and that of the fairy tale ; its style is objective, the narrative is simple, and the matter appeals strongly to the childish imagination. For more mature boys and girls, and for adults, the interest is found chiefly in the keen satire which underlies the narrative. It appeals, therefore, to a very wide range of intelligence and taste, and can be read with profit by the child of ten and by the young man or woman of mature years. As a reading book in school which must be adapted to the average mind, these stories will be found suitable for classes from the fifth or sixth school year to the highest grade of the grammar school." FROM THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. The Story of a Short Life By Mrs. EWING. Edited by T. M. BALLIET. Illustrated by A. F. SCHMITT. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth, 20 cents. " This touching little story is much less familiar to American boys and girls than it deserves to be, and its publication in this series will form an important addition to our juvenile literature. The heroic in our nature and the instinct of hero-wor- ship are especially strong in youth, and appear in one form or another, even in the later days of childhood. The gratification, and at the same time the ennobling of this instinct, is an important function of juvenile literature. It is here where this little story will accomplish its mission. Its heroism and its pathos are of a charac- ter to touch this side of child nature, and to spiritualize it. "The thought of the story is no more difficult than the language, and the book may safely be given to any boy or girl for whom the mechanical difficulties of the language are not too great. As a reading book in school, it will probably be found best adapted for use with classes of the sixth or seventh year of school." FROM EDITOR'S PREFACE. Tales from the Travels of Baron Munchausen Edited by Dr. E. E. HALE. Illustrated by H. P. BARNES after DORE. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper 10 cents; cloth, 20 cents. This book of wonder-exciting stories, written to bring into contempt the exaggerations of the eighteenth century traveller's tales, has been appropriated by the children with that unerring instinct which led them to make Gulliver and Robinson Crusoe their own. 66 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN The Story without an End By F. W. CAROVE. Translated from the German by SARAH AUSTIN. With a preface by Colonel THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Fourteen illustrations after the drawings by E. V. B. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Cloth 25 cents. This famous story was highly commended for children's read- ing by Carlyle, and Sir Walter Besant called it "a delight- ful story." Colonel Higginson says it appeals specially to the always " living minds of young children." Alice and Tom The Record of a Happy Year. By KATE L. BROWN. Cloth. 220 pages 40 cents. A story of two happy, hearty children who love outdoor sports and the companionship of birds, flowers, and trees. Ostensibly it is not a book of information, but each chapter aims to be a little centre of inspiration, attractive to small people. Fridtjof Nansen By JACOB B. BULL. Translated from the Norwegian by MORDAUNT R. BARNARD, one of the translators of " Farthest North." Boards. 142 pages. Illustrated 30 cents. A spirited and enthusiastic narrative of Nansen's youth, early manhood, and adventures in the Arctic regions. The story is clear and vivid, and the descriptions are accurate. About twenty pictures, showing Nansen and his ship, Arctic animals and scenes, add to the attractiveness of the story. Stories of Pioneer Life By FLORENCE BASS, author of "The Beginner's Reader," "Stories in Plant Life," " Stories in Animal Life." Cloth. 146 pages. Illustrated 40 cents. A series of biographical stories of the men who illustrate the periods of the missionary, the hunter, and the early settler in the Ohio Valley. These stories admirably prepare the chil- dren's minds for the later study of history, and, at the same time, develop an admiration for the sturdy patriotism, heroism, and manhood which characterized the early pioneers. Such stories make the right kind of reading for young Americans. FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS 67 America's Story for America's Children By MARA L. PRATT. Five volumes. Handsomely bound. Effectively illustrated. Book III. " The Colonies." Cloth. 182 pages 40 cents. The story of the first settlements on this continent and of the beginnings of the thirteen colonies. The style is animated and the narrative vivid. The subject-matter includes the results of the most recent research and the most accurate data that are available concerning the earlier colonial period. America's Story for America's Children By MARA L. PRATT. Five volumes. Handsomely bound. Effectively illustrated. Book IV. "The Later Colonial Period." Cloth. 131 pages 40 cents. Treats of the early settlements in the Mississippi Valley, the French and Indian wars, etc., and gives vivid and definite ideas of the heroes of the later colonial period. Our Feathered Friends By ELIZABETH GRINNELL and JOSEPH GRINNELL. With an introduction by WILLIAM PALMER of the National Museum, Washington, D.C. Boards. Fully illustrated. 152 pages 30 cents. No child can read this book and fail to become a more keen and intelligent observer of birds and their ways. The authors make use of the results of accurate personal observation, and appeal to children in a way to bring them into sympathetic touch with nature. More than forty common varieties of birds are treated. The illustrations are numerous, and in accuracy excel any other series that has been included in a book for schools. Seaside and Wayside By JULIA McNAiR WRIGHT. Cloth. No. III. 306 pages . 45 cents. Continues the encouragement of investigation by directing attention to the things about the children. The book contains lessons on plant life, grasshoppers, butterflies, and birds. 68 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN SIXTH AND SEVENTH YEARS Books which lead the child into the wide open field of literature, which expand his stock of world knowledge and introduce him to the history of his nation and kis race. Heart of Oak Books Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Cloth. Vol. IV. 303 pages 50 cents. This volume of the series contains some of the shorter poems and prose writings long accepted as best wherever the English language is spoken. It cultivates a taste for the purest litera- ture, aids, the healthy development of the imagination, and thus helps the formation and invigoration of the best elements of character by instilling' the spirit of the noblest productions of great essayists, chroniclers, and poets. The Bird Book By FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM. Cloth. 259 pages. Illustrated 60 cents. This book gives the pupil a habit of keen observation and an interest and enthusiasm in bird-study. The lives of nearly one hundred birds that are well known and easily observed, receive particular study. There are fifty-eight illustrations from nature. The book is in all respects a finished, attractive piece of work and has rare literary excellence. Seaside and Wayside By JULIA McNAiR WRIGHT. Cloth. No. IV. 372 pages . 50 cents. The charm of the clear, simple style of this series is preserved in this volume, which treats of world life in its different aspects and periods. Elementary astronomy and zoology form a large part of the work. This book is calculated to broaden and deepen the interest and intelligence of pupils in the wider fields of study which the earlier volumes have opened to them. SIXTH AND SEVENTH YEARS 69 Tales from Shakespeare By CHARLES LAMB. Introduction by ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD. Illustrated by HOMER W. COLBY after PILLE. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) In three parts. Paper, each part, 15 cents; cloth, three parts bound in one 40 cents. " In spite of a century's change the value of this work," says the editor, " has grown with years. The Shakespeare stories of Charles and Mary Lamb have always been, and will always be, eagerly read by men and women, old and young." The Crofton Boys By HARRIET MARTINEAU. Edited by WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. Illus- trated by A. F. SCHMITT. In two parts. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, each part, 10 cents; cloth, two parts bound in one 30 cents. This is a story of schoolboy life by the famous author of " Feats on the Fjord," " Peasant and Prince," etc. It is full of sound, earnest, common sense, and the charm of its tender feel- ing, clear English, and living human interest has won for it a high place. The pictures show how schoolboys lived and played early in the century. The Siege of Leyden By J. L. MOTLEY. Edited by WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS. With nine- teen illustrations from old Dutch prints and photographs, and a map. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth, 20 cents. " The story of the siege of Leyden," says Dr. W. Elliot Griffis, " belongs not to the Dutch only but to the world's history of freedom. No other city on the continent of Europe is so closely connected with American history. " The story of the terrible siege it underwent in the sixteenth century, how the work of war went on without, while famine and pestilence raged within, and how the city was relieved by cut- ting the dikes and making the ocean fight for the Dutch, drown- ing the land and driving out the Spaniards, is told in Motley's brilliant pages. To his famous chapter we have added some notes, in order that every American boy may learn how the salt water of the sea, and the patriotic valor of the Dutch, drove off the forces of tyranny and made Leyden a beacon light in the 70 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN history of liberty. The illustrations are drawn from contem- porary sources, portraits, monuments, historic buildings, and other objects which figured in the siege." Rab and His Friends and Stories of Our Dogs. By Dr. JOHN BROWN. Edited by T. M. BALLIET. Illustrated by DAVID L. MUNROE after Sir NOEL PATON, Mrs. BLACKBURN, GEORGE HARDY, and LUMB STOCKS. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 10 cents; cloth . .20 cents. " The delightful sketches," says Superintendent Balliet, " have long since established themselves as classics in juvenile litera- ture. They appeal to the healthy boy nature, and their moral tone is good. They will be read with interest by young people ranging from the age of about eleven to fifteen ; as a reading book this volume will probably be found best adapted to the classes in the fifth, sixth, and seventh year of school." Strange Peoples By FREDERICK STARR, Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago. Cloth. 198 pages. Illustrated 40 cents. An absolutely accurate and intensely interesting account of the peculiarities of the strange peoples of the world. Professor Starr is a man of extensive travel and deep research, and his book has the unique charm and force which can only come from personal descriptions by a man who tells what he himself has seen and knows. American Indians By FREDERICK STARR, Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago. Cloth. 240 pages. Illustrated 45 cents. A well-written, true account which will appeal strongly to the young and give them correct impressions of these much mis- understood peoples. The author has personal knowledge of the customs and life of more than thirty different Indian tribes and has made good use of his unrivalled opportunities for investi- gation. Both the past and the present life is portrayed and no tribal peculiarity is neglected. EIGHTH AND NINTH YEARS 71 America's Story for America's Children By MARA L. PRATT. Five volumes. Handsomely bound. Effectively illustrated. Book V. " The Revolution." Cloth. 182 pages 40 cents. Tells the story of the Revolution, the causes that led to it, and of the men who guided the development of events and laid the foundations of the republic. The victories of peace and the growth of the nation in wealth and power are also set forth. This series will prove fully as attractive to pupils as romance and will supplement the regular instruction in history in an effective manner. Stories from English History Edited by H. P. WARREN, Principal of Albany Academy. Decorated cloth cover. 492 pages. Fully illustrated . . . .80 cents. A series of interesting and picturesque stories arranged in historical sequence and grouped in their proper relations, which treat the important events and characters of English history from the Roman Invasion through the death of Queen Victoria, giving especial attention to those that have influenced American history. The book is a supplementary reader of unusual literary merit, adapted for upper grammar grades, and is an admirable introduction to the formal study of United States or English history. EIGHTH AND NINTH YEARS Books which make the young reader acquainted with many of the masterpieces of literature, further expand his world knowledge, and help him to understand his position as an American citizen. Heart of Oak Books Edited by CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Cloth. Vol. V., 359 pages, 55 cents. Vol. VI., 367 pages 60 cents. Poems and prose writings by authors who represent the best productions of our language, and by which the reader will share in the common literary treasures of our race. 72 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN Chapters on Animals Dogs, Cats, and Horses. By PHILIP G. HAMERTON. Edited by W. P. TRENT. Illustrated after Sir E. LANDSEER, Sir JOHN MILLAIS, ROSA BONHEUR, E. VAN MUYDEN, VEYRASSAT, J. L. GEROME, K. BOOMER, etc. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 15 cents; cloth 25 cents. With illustrations after Veyrassat, Van Muyden, Landseer, Rosa Bonheur, etc., by E. H. Saunders and D. Munro. An excellent book for the older boys and girls who have animal companions of their own, and have learned in some degree to love and understand them. Professor Trent says "these pages cannot fail to interest readers of every age, and should, moreover, be in a high degree educative to children." The illustrations from the best sources are more or less anno- tative in character. True Tales of Birds and Beasts Selected by DAVID STARR JORDAN, President of Leland Stanford Junior University. Sixty-one illustrations. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Cloth 40 cents. " True Tales of Birds and Beasts " are always welcome to children of every age ; here are a dozen stories by well-known writers which are true, and which are also good for children of all ages to read. They are chosen from the growing wealth of such literature because they are told with literary skill, and are not so tragic as to be painful reading, a feature of some modern writings which has made many people hesitate about putting them into the hands of young people. It has been fully illus- trated under the supervision of the editor by Miss Mary Weld- man, the associate artist of the Hopkins Laboratory of Leland Stanford Junior University, both by half-tone and line drawings. Dolph Heyliger By WASHINGTON IRVING. Edited by G. H. BROWNE. Illustrated by H. P. BARNES. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Paper, 15 cents; cloth 25 cents. This is one of the stories from " Bracebridge Hall." It pre- sents a vivid picture of New York in old Colonial days, and will EIGHTH AND NINTH YEARS 73 be read by young people with delight and wonder for the mys- tery it contains, and with instruction from its pictures of past times which the illustrations emphasize and supplement. Shakespeare's The Tempest Edited by SARAH W. HIESTAND. Illustrations after RETZCH and the CHANDOS portrait. Paper, 15 cents; cloth . . . .25 cents. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Edited by SARAH W. HIESTAND. Illustrations after SMIRKE and the DROESHOUT portrait. Paper, 15 cents; cloth . . .25 cents. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors Edited by SARAH W. HIESTAND. Illustrations after SMIRKE, CRESWICK, LESLIE, and the JANSEN portrait. Paper, 15 cents; cloth . 25 cents. Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Edited by SARAH W. HIESTAND. Illustrations after LESLIE, WHEATLEY, WRIGHT, and the bust in Westminster Abbey. Paper, 15 cents; cloth 25 cents. The first four plays of a simplified edition of Shakespeare suited to the needs of readers from twelve to fifteen years of age in Heath's " Home and School Classics" Those portions of each play have been omitted which are likely to prove tedi- ous, puzzling, or incomprehensible to the young reader ; and yet this version will be found full enough to give a perfect out- line of each play of which it tells the story in the poefs own words. Robinson Crusoe By DANIEL DEFOE. Reprint from the first edition of 1719, with introduc- tion by EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Illustrated by C. E. BROCK and D. L. MUNRO. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) In four parts. Paper, each part, 15 cents; cloth, one vol 60 cents. A really complete edition of this famous classic, not adapted or fitted to any grade, but for the boy or girl to read when ready for it as it is. All the action and all the psychological interest is there as well. 74 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN Undine: A Romantic Fairy Tale By F. DE LA MOTTE FouQUE, with an introduction by Mrs. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD. Fifty-seven illustrations after the drawings by JULIUS HOPPNER. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Cloth, 30 cents. " Of all the healthy, happy, right instincts in our children which it should be the joy of all right and healthy parents and teachers to gratify when possible, the love of wonderland is one of the most innocent, and perhaps in its way one of the most inevitable. We may give place to it heartily, and with a certain respect which per- haps we do not always cultivate towards illusions that we have ourselves outgrown. It is as useful as skates, or dolls, or kites, or bob-sleds, and as worthy of personal regard or attention. It has as true a place in the education of our children as the multiplication table or the map of Europe. Of all the fairy tales read and beloved in my own fairy years I do not recall any one which has lived by me longer than ' Undine.' . . . The book is as clear as one of Undine's own lakes, and no delicate child could see anything but fair and lovely images in it." FROM MRS. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD. Typee : Life in the South Seas By HERMANN MELVILLE, with introduction by Professor W. P. TRENT. Eighteen illustrations by H. W. MOORE. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Cloth 45 cents. Here is a book which thoroughly satisfies every boy's love of adventure, while it introduces him to new scenes and new lands all vividly described with a skilful pen, and in strong, graphic English. Hermann Melville's works have long since taken rank as classic. The story is illustrated by a sailor who has sailed and sketched in the South Seas. Castle Blair By FLORA L. SHAW. With an introduction by Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE. Eight illustrations by the Misses WHITNEY. (Heath's Home and School Classics.) Cloth 30 cents. This is the book which John Ruskin said " is good, and lovely, and true, having the best description of a noble child in it (Winnie) that I ever read, and nearly the best description of the next best thing a noble dog." Mrs. Mary A. Livermore says it is "a bright, breezy story for children most enter- tainingly told. The tone is uplifting, and the young people who read it will not only be charmed with it, but will be made happier and better for having read it." The American Citizen By CHARLES F. DOLE. Cloth. 336 pages . . . .80 cents. EIGHTH AND NINTH YEARS 75 An interesting and patriotic book upon American citizenship. This work contains such subjects as every boy and girl needs to know something about before leaving school. The American government as it is, together with the political, social, and eco- nomic duties of citizens to the state and to one another are set forth in a clear and attractive manner. First Book in Geology By N. S. SHALER, Professor of Paleontology, Harvard University. Cloth. 272 pages. Illustrated. 60 cents. Boards ... 45 cents. Professor Shaler's interesting diction makes delightful reading of the few clear, well-selected facts which he gives as a key to the knowledge of the earth. The aim is to illustrate the prin- ciples of geology by reference to familiar experience with, for example, pebbles, sand, clay, the work of water and air, etc. A teacher's manual is provided. The Sir Roger De Coverley Papers From the Spectator. Edited, with introduction and notes, by WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON, Professor of English Literature in Leland Stanford Junior University. Cloth. Nine full-page illustrations and two maps. 232 pages 40 cents. In this edition is presented a text that is accurate and authen- tic. The complete series of thirty-six de Coverley Papers is given. The illustrations portray the life and customs of the age. Ivanhoe By Sir WALTER SCOTT. Edited by PORTER LANDER MACCLINTOCK, of the University of Chicago. Cloth. 574 pages. Sixteen full-page illus- trations by BROCK 50 cents. A special feature of this edition is the text, which is the nearest approach to a definitive edition that has yet appeared. The introduction, notes, and glossary provide the necessary informa- tion for a proper appreciation of the story. The Last of the Mohicans By J. FENNIMORE COOPER. Edited, with aids to appreciation, by JOHN G. WIGHT, Principal of the Girls' High School, New York City. Cloth. 659 pages. With maps and illustrations. Introduction price . 50 cents. 76 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN This capital story is given without abridgment and with such helps from the editor as seem necessary for the best understand- ing of the plot. There are questions upon the important mat- ters in each chapter and suggestions, for brief written or oral exercises. Silas Marner By GEORGE ELIOT. With introduction and notes by GEORGE A. WAU- CHOPE, Professor of English in South Carolina College. Cloth. 288 pages. Nine full-page illustrations by W. H. LAWRENCE. Introduction price 35 cents. The editor gives an interesting introduction to the story, a very suggestive list of study topics, biographical outline, literary references, and a few words to the teacher. The illustrations add a new charm to this exceptionally interesting story. Julius Caesar In the Arden Shakespeare. Based on the Globe text. 144 pages 25 cents. This edition is especially suited to young readers, being de- voted to the literary and dramatic interpretations of the plays, rather than to finding material for the study of philology. The purpose of the editor of this edition has been to make it a " liv- ing thing and not mere word-mongery. " The Merchant of Venice In the Arden Shakespeare. 142 pages . . . .25 cents. The Vicar of Wakefield By OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Introduction and notes by WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON, Professor of English Literature, Leland Stanford Junior Uni- versity. Cloth. Seventeen full-page illustrations. 300 pages 50 cents. The text followed is that of the last edition printed during Goldsmith's lifetime, and containing his final emendations. The introduction, notes, and illustrations are intended to aid in de- veloping an intelligent appreciation of Goldsmith's prose and of the perennial charm of " The Vicar" as literature. A FEW WORDS OF APPROVAL 77 A FEW WORDS OF APPROVAL FROM BISHOPS AND CLERGY BISHOP J. L. SPAULDING, ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL, PEORIA, ILL. " I am much pleased with the plan as well as with the selections sent me." BISHOP W. C. DOANE, ALBANY, N.Y. " I should feel much confidence in the character of the books selected." BISHOP HUGH MILLER THOMPSON, JACKSON, Miss. " I shall willingly recommend the books to Sunday School and other libra- ries as it may come in my way." BISHOP G. MOTT WILLIAMS, MARQUETTE, MICH. " You may quote me in hearty indorsement of the series." BISHOP L. R. BREWER, HELENA, MONT. " I wish you success in your attempt to publish the best kind of literature, and the more your books are read in Montana, the better I shall be pleased." BISHOP JOSEPH M. FRANCIS, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. " I think them most excellent in every way. It will give me great pleas- ure to recommend them whenever and wherever I may have opportunity." BISHOP THOMAS F. GAILOR, SEWANEE, TENN. " I think that the series is admirable, and congratulate you upon having provided our children with real literature in such attractive form." BISHOP WILLIAM H. HARE, MISSIONARY DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA. "There is everything about their appearance which is agreeable to the eye and which pleases good taste. Their contents seems to me calculated to lead young readers to choose them rather than trashy stuff, for the simple reason that they are really more worth choosing." BISHOP WILLIAM CRANE GRAY, ORLANDO, FLA. " I have examined the volumes of HEATH'S HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS, and I believe them to be wholesome, as well as entertaining reading for children. Those minds trained to read such literature will be able to enjoy the really beautiful and good, and will not pronounce everything ' dry ' and ' stupid ' and 'silly' which is not exciting, horrible, and verging upon crime if not really criminal as those do who are allowed the freedom of the modern fairy tales, impossible adventures, coarse ' funny books,' which are put into the hands of almost babies. This series does not claim to be religious but seems to be clean and of high moral teaching. I think it a real godsend to the children of this day." 78 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN FROM BISHOPS AND CLERGY BISHOP G. D. B. MILLER, ST. Louis, Mo. "The list of books published by you and as given by you is excellent. I can heartily indorse them." THE REV. GEORGE C. LORIMER, TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. " We desire to express most heartily our approval of your plan and our admiration of the specimens you placed at our disposal. We are sure that parents would deal wisely in surrounding their children, as they grow up, with such admirable productions as you have prepared for their assistance in the culture of those dependent upon them." THE REV. E. WINCHESTER DONALD, RECTOR TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON. "The series is far and away the most remarkable and rational and whole- some provision of really good things for children that has ever fallen under my eye. It would be impossible for me adequately to say how fine I think they are. If the physical preperties of a book can tempt a child to read it, surely these books of yours will be read." FROM UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES DAVID S. JORDAN, PRES. LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, STAN- FORD UNIV., CAL. " Your excellent series for children. I shall be glad to do whatever I can to encourage the use of these superior books in place of the worthless stuff so often put in the hands of children." THEO. W. HUNT, PROF. OF RHETORIC, ENGLISH LANGUAGE, AND LITERA- TURE, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, PRINCETON, NJ. " The series impresses me as an admirable one. These books will be of great educational service in making the young, at home and at school, famil- iar with the best books of the best authors." MARTIN W. SAMPSON, PROF. OF ENGLISH, UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA, BLOOMINGTON, IND. " I shall do aH that I can to make the series known, for I believe it sup- plies most admirably a real need." J. W. STEARNS, PROF. OF PHILOSOPHY AND PEDAGOGY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, Wis. " I am greatly pleased with them. They are light, substantial, beautifully printed and illustrated, and charming in matter. Thoroughly admirable. A series begun with such volumes can hardly fail to win the favor of old and young." WM. DeW. HYDE, PRES. OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BRUNSWICK, ME. " An admirable idea admirably executed." A FEW WORDS OF APPROVAL 79 FROM UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES CHAS. WARREN STODDARD, PROF. OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, WASHINGTON, D.C. " Admirably adapted to the purpose of their issue, and I hope and trust will meet with the success they deserve." PROFESSOR C. T. WINCHESTER, OF THE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, DE- PARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, MIDDLETOWN, CONN. "Your series of HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS is admirable admirably chosen, edited, and printed. I like the purpose and the plan of the series most heartily. Nothing could be better. I have just finished reading ' Goody Two Shoes ' again; how delightful it is with its simplicity and gentleness and truth, and with the charming reproductions of the old-time pictures. Of course Goldsmith wrote it; nobody else in his day could have written it, and he never wrote anything better." PROFESSOR WALTER C. BRONSON, BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R.I. " HEATH'S HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS seem to me a remarkable series of books for supplementary reading. The range is wide, the selection judi- cious, the editing intelligent, the typography excellent, and the price surpris- ingly low. The series ought to do much to cultivate the love of good reading in our schools and homes." E. M. BROWN, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. "The children's books you sent I have examined with much pleasure. They are admirable, though I could wish they were in more durable binding. It makes one young again to turn to these ever-delightful tales. I should be glad to prepare something for the series, as you suggest, if I could find time to do so." PRESIDENT NATHANIEL BUTLER, COLBY COLLEGE. " I want to congratulate you upon the very attractive form of these books. The series must prove, it seems to me, highly successful because meeting an actual and long-existing demand." PROFESSOR HENRY VAN DYKE, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. " The plan of your children's books seems to me very excellent, and so far as I am able to judge you are carrying it out well." PROFESSOR EWALD FLUEGEL, STANFORD UNIVERSITY. " If good printing and careful editing have ever made an attractive book, you have succeeded in it. I do not think there are other booklets as charm- ing and as cheap in the market, and I have no doubt you will bring good literature and good taste to many a home which looked for its food in very different directions before." PROFESSOR SAMUEL B. HARDING, INDIANA UNIVERSITY. "They are excellent in every respect, in selection, in editing, and in mechanical execution, and cannot be too highly praised. It is a matter for congratulation that books of such high merit and so cheap in price are made available for children^. It will give me pleasure to make the books better known." 80 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN P. P. CLAXTON, SEC. SOUTHERN ED. Assoc., GREENSBORO, N.C. "This idea of publishing all the best literature, for children and young people, in good form but cheap, is a most excellent one. The books will cer- tainly be welcomed by other teachers, who have learned that there is some- thing better in school reading than that humdrum drill of old-time readers." MISS ADA VAN STONE HARRIS, SUPERVISOR OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND KINDERGARTENS, ROCHESTER, N.Y. " I am very much delighted with the series. The selections are admirably chosen, edited, and printed. You have certainly put before the children, and teachers as well, an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with much of the world's best literature. I am sure that these books will reach the heart of the adult as well as the child. I want to congratulate you upon having put before the public such an excellent series and within such reason- able rates." FROM STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS C. C. VAN LIEW, PRES. CAL. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHICO, CAL. " I am very much pleased, indeed, with these opening numbers of the series. They have been well edited and carefully selected. It is specially pleasing to know that something new and fresh is being presented in the best form. I shall be interested in the further development of the series." PRESIDENT H. H. SEERLEY, IOWA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CEDAR FALLS, IA. " I am much pleased with these first five books. I can heartily commend the series if it maintains the standard that these books show. I did an un- usual thing in this case and read every page of the whole number sent me. I can commend them as worthy of the patronage of the teacher and parent. I congratulate you upon the movement to put them in the form and price to reach school and home." E. H. RUSSELL, PRIN. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WORCESTER, MASS. " I congratulate you on this new and timely issue, which can hardly fail to become popular as it becomes known. I hail every step in the direction of keeping open before children and youth a broad path toward our incom- parable English classics." G. M. PHILIPS, PRIN. NORMAL SCHOOL, WEST CHESTER, PA. " Your HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS are well selected and well printed. I believe that you are going to solve the question of providing reading which children will like and which they ought to like, which is a very great problem." A FEW WORDS OF APPROVAL 8 1 FROM STATE AND SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS FRANK J. BROWNE, SUPT. OF STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, OLYMPIA, WASH. " We are pleased with their general appearance and believe they will prove useful and profitable to the children." G. R. GLENN, STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER, ATLANTA, GA. "These books will be very valuable not only for supplementary reading in our schools, but for the circulating libraries which are now coming into use in nearly all of our counties. I shall be very glad to commend them to the county officials." HELEN L. GRENFELL, SUPT. STATE OF COLORADO DEPT. OF PUB. INST., DENVER, COL. " A most valuable addition to the supplementary reading now published, and owing to their reasonable price and attractive form, as well as their finely selected contents, I am sure they will prove a great success." THOMAS J. KIRK, STATE SUPT. OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, CAL. " I do not hesitate to give them my heartiest indorsement as books for children. They are good either for supplementary school reading or for home reading, and I trust you may find extensive sale for them to the school chil- dren of California. More and more are we coming to realize the value and need of an abundance of good reading matter in our elementary schools." N. C. DOUGHERTY, SUPT. OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PEORIA, ILL. " They are well gotten up, and the names of the editors assure one that the literary work has been well done." F. TREUDLEY, SUPT. OF SCHOOLS, YOUNGSTOWN, O. " They are capital, and I shall take great pleasure in presenting them to our principals for inspection." WALTER E. RANGER, STATE SUPT., MONTPELIER, VT. " From the first HEATH'S HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS has impressed me as one of the best series of books for children that I have seen. Better selec- tions could hardly be made. Such books are a blessing to the home as well as to the school." / FRANK A. HILL, SECRETARY STATE BOARD, MASS. " Admirable selections that cannot but commend themselves to schools that aim to extend their libraries for supplementary reading." SARAH C. BROOKS, ST. PAUL, MINN. " I have examined them with great interest, and shall place them where teachers and principals may examine them. I look forward with pleasure to the coming of the remaining volumes of the series." 82 THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN ALICE W. COOLEY, SUPERVISOR OF PRIMARY DEPT., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. " I am very much pleased with them, and shall be glad to say a good word for them whenever and wherever opportunity offers." MISS SARAH L. ARNOLD, FORMERLY SUPERVISOR OF SCHOOLS, BOSTON. "Allow me to congratulate you on the success of HEATH'S HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS. I have examined with delight the first copies. They are thoroughly good, their illustrations are charming, and the whole appearance of the page is pleasing. The books are well edited and well chosen. I do not see how they can fail to succeed." FROM PUBLIC LIBRARIES F. A. HUTCHINS, SEC. Wis. FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION, MADISON, Wis. " They will be of great value, not only in the schools, but in some forms of school and public library work." CAROLINE M. HEWINS, PUBLIC LIBRARIAN, HARTFORD, CONN. ' I am very happy to tell you how good they are." MARY W. PLUMMER, LIBRARIAN PRATT INSTITUTE FREE LIBRARY, BROOK- LYN, N.Y. " They are so well printed for children and so very reasonable in price, besides being valuable as literature." MELVIL DEWEY, STATE LIBRARIAN, ALBANY, N.Y. " The HOME AND SCHOOL CLASSICS are very attractive in their page, type, and general appearance. You seem to have started a good thing there, and I wish you all success." FROM THE PRESS " A new era has dawned for the child reader. Classics are made enticing and put in the way of the little people. The illustrations deserve more than honorable mention. For once, here are pictures that may find a response in the child's mind, and at the same time be attractive." Chicago Post. " Writings which every child should know before his years are too many to permit him to thoroughly enjoy them." Detroit Free Press. " The little volumes present a charming range of reading for children of all ages. Teachers and mothers will prove their value by daily use in the schoolroom and nursery." Philadelphia Public Ledger. " Famous stories, sketches, and plays carefully edited and attractively printed in good, readable type, with numerous pen-and-ink illustrations." Outlook. " All of these books are illustrated with well-drawn pictures, which accu- rately explain the text and are of artistic value. When once in their hands, these books will prove of lasting benefit to the rising generation." Boston Journal of Education. . UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 1 7 1967 LD 21-100m-9,'48iB399sl6)476 VB 1 06582