"Stories to Read or Tell" has been compiled for the boys and girls who like
to listen to stories as well as to read them, and for the mothers and
teachers who are looking for stories "not quite so well known" as those
contained in many excellent compilations now in use.
"'Tell me a story' comes before the ability to read," and unfortunate is
the child who has not gone to the "Land of Nod" with good Mother Goose and
those of her kin.
"The story period of a child's life merges imperceptibly into the reading
period.... Listening to stories from books is the natural approach to
reading from books and is the first step toward the acquisition of
culture," says one believer in story-telling. Another adds "What is more
pleasing than an increasing acquaintance with stories of the imagination,
for of fact we shall learn more, anon."
The child who is brought up entirely on fact, loses the joys and fine
feeling offered to him through the imagery of great minds. To deprive him
of fairy tales, myths and legends as given through the medium of
story-telling, is to keep from him a knowledge of the fairies, gods and
heroes so frequently alluded to by authors and poets of the world's
literature.