The Nürnberg Stove (Ramée), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Carroll), Black Beauty, Little Lord Fauntleroy (Burnett), Being a Boy (Warner), The Story of a Bad Boy (Aldrich), The Robin Hood Stories (Pyle), Tales of a Traveller (Irving), King of the Golden River (Ruskin), The Water-Babies (Kingsley), The Pied Piper of Hamlin (Browning), Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago (Andrews) and The Story of the English (Guerber).
From 11 on, some of the simple biographies are interesting to children, as of John Smith, Boone, Miles Standish, Lincoln, Washington, La Salle, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Peter the Great, King Alfred, Cæsar, Cromwell and others.
During the grammar-school period children become interested in such books as Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb), Irving's Stories, Vicar of Wakefield, Pilgrim's Progress, Swiss Family Robinson, Last of the Mohicans, Evangeline, Tales of a Grandfather, Plutarch's Lives, Silas Marner, Tom Brown's School-Days, Franklin's Autobiography, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Merchant of Venice, Roger de Coverly, Lady of the Lake, Don Quixote, Rob Roy, Treasure Island, Peasant and Prince, Scudder's Life of Washington, The Talisman, Ivanhoe and The Deserted Village.
Then comes a large series of books of travel and adventure, geographical descriptions and excursions, stories of hunting and fishing, voyages of exploration and discovery, which make a good share of a library for boys and girls. Such are Livingstone's and Stanley's experiences in Africa, the ocean-explorers, as Columbus, Da Gama, Magellan, Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cook; Arctic explorers, as Nansen; pioneer explorers in America, as Champlain, De Soto, Lewis and Clark and Fremont.
More recently there has come into use a body of nature-stories and science-books which are of much importance, as Burrough's Birds and Bees, Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearing Animals, Bird Land (Keyser), Krag and Johnny Bear (Seton), The Foot-Path Way (Torey), Three Outdoor Papers (Higginson), Stories of Bird Life (Pearson), The First Book of Birds and Birds Through an Opera Glass (Olive Thorne Miller), Nestlings in Forest and Marsh (Wheelock), Town Geology and Madame How and Lady Why (Kingsley), Star land (Ball), Natural History of Selborne (White), Secrets of the Woods (Long) and Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (Mathews).
In addition may be mentioned humorous stories, as How I Killed a Bear (Warner), Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (Twain), The Rose and the Ring (Thackeray), The Story of a Bad Boy (Aldrich), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle) and Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor (Masson).
Intelligent parents are becoming aware of the importance of selecting the best books for children and of not only putting these books where children may find them but of reading to the children. Mothers, fathers, older brothers and sisters or aunts cannot entertain and benefit the children so much in any other way as by reading the best stories to them. This should begin before children are old enough to go to school. Between four and six is the choice time, in many respects, to introduce children to the best stories and ballads. Their minds are remarkably receptive to good stories at this period, and the thought and language of children can be thus early shaped and directed into the best channels. Thoughtful mothers who can get time for this delightful study with their children find it most valuable to all concerned and a real pleasure.
As children grow a little older, the reading of good books in the family circle, where old and young alike may enjoy them together, is perhaps the best way of developing the right family spirit and at the same time cultivating and enriching the minds of young and old. For this reason a well-selected family library is very helpful. Some of our city and town libraries now provide a children's room where a full set of children's books is supplied. In some cases a lady is employed to read to classes of boys and girls, introducing them in an interesting way to the better class of books.
In common schools the entire method of treating books and literature has undergone a great change in recent years. The oral treatment of stories in primary grades has developed into an elaborate plan of introducing the best stories and literary products to children, in order thus to give them an early and vivid acquaintance with authors and their works. Primary teachers have been developing the art of storytelling, including clear and attractive narrative, impersonation of characters, dramatic action of a simple kind, question, answer and discussion and, finally, careful reproduction of stories by the children. This kind of work has vitalized primary instruction, awakened the interests and thought activity of children, and exerted excellent influence in improving the language and composition of pupils. It has laid the foundation in primary grades for a real educative acquaintance with several standard classes of literature which may grow and develop later. This oral acquaintance with firstclass stories and myths also has a close relation to the labor of learning to read in primary schools. It plants in the children the desire to learn the art of reading, and it lends enthusiasm and natural expression to all later oral reading. The mechanical formalism and monotony so common among children in learning to read are due largely to the lack of thought and interest in what they are reading; in short to a deficiency of such stimulating ideas as children appropriate richly through oral story and work.
