_PREFACE_ (p. ix)
This little book, a revision of one privately printed a few years ago,
has been prepared for home use, and for this reason the classification
has been made according to the age, and not the school grade, of the
child. But as children differ so greatly in capacity, it should be
understood that in this respect the arrangement is only approximate.
The endeavor has been made to choose those fairy tales which are most
free from horrible happenings, and to omit all writings which tolerate
unkindness to animals. Humorous books are designated by a star and the
few sad ones by a circle.
The prices given are the same as those in the publishers' catalogues;
booksellers' prices are often less.
My thanks are extended to those publishers who have time and again
courteously provided the facilities for the examination of their
publications.
Miss Annie Carroll Moore, of the New York Public Library, was kind
enough to read for me the notes and comments. I wish most gratefully
to acknowledge the generous assistance given me by Miss Hewins, of (p. x)
the Hartford Public Library, Miss Hunt, of the Brooklyn Public
Library, and Miss Jordan, of the Boston Public Library, who examined
the List, and suggested some changes and a few additions. Their
approbation is elsewhere expressed.
GERTRUDE WELD ARNOLD.
NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY.
_A MOTHER'S LIST_ (p. xi)
It is said, in that earliest collection of English proverbs which was
made by John Heywood, more than three hundred years ago, that
"Children must learn to creep before they can go." This little book
for which I am asked to write a brief preface is, so far as I can find
out, the first consistent effort yet made towards teaching children to
read on John Heywood's principle. It is safe to say that it is
destined to carry light and joy into multitudes of households. It is
based upon methods such as I vaguely sighed after, nearly fifty years
ago, when I was writing in the _North American Review_ for January,
1866, a paper entitled Children's Books of the Year. The essay was
written by request of Professor Charles Eliot Norton, then the editor
of that periodical, and I can now see how immensely I should have been
relieved by a book just like this Mother's List, a device such as
nobody in that day had the wisdom and faithful industry to put
together.
In glancing over the books discussed in that early paper of mine, it
is curious to see how the very titles of some of the most prominent
have now disappeared from sight. Where are the Little Prudy books (p. xii)
which once headed the list? Where are the stories of Oliver Optic?
Where is Jacob Abbott's John Gay; or Work for Boys? Even Paul and
Virginia have vanished, taking with them the philosophic Rasselas and
even the pretty story of Undine. Nothing of that list of thirty titles
is now well remembered except Cooper's Leatherstocking and Jane
Andrews's Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats
in the Air, a book which has been translated into the languages of
remote nations of the globe, I myself having seen the Chinese and
Japanese versions. Thus irregular is the award of time and we must
accept it. Meanwhile this new book is organized on a better plan than
any dreamed of at that former period, the books being arranged not
merely by classes alone, but according to the age of the proposed
readers and stretching in regular order from two years old until
fourteen. The whole number of books being very large, there is no
overdue limitation, and this forms the simple but magical method of
reaching every variety of childish mind.
Thus excellent have been the changes: yet it is curious to (p. xiii)
observe on closer study that the two classes of books which represent
the two extremes among the childish readers--Mother Hubbard and
Shakespeare--may still be said to be the opposite poles between which
the whole world of juvenile literature hangs suspended. A child needs
to be supplied with a proper diet of fancy as well as of fact; and of
fact as well as fancy. He is usually so constituted that if he were to
find a fairy every morning in his bread and milk at breakfast, it
would not very much surprise him; while yet his appetite for the
substantial food remains the same. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
seem nowhere very strange to him, while Chaucer and Spenser need only
to be simply told, while Dana's Two Years Before the Mast and Hughes's
Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby hold their own as well as Jack and
the Bean-Stalk. Grown up people have their prejudices, but children
have few or none. A pound of feathers and a pound of lead will usually
be found to weigh the same in their scales. Nay, we, their
grandparents, know by experience that there may be early cadences in
their ears which may last all their lives. For instance, Caroline (p. xiv)
Fry's Listener would now scarcely find a reader in any group of
children, yet there is one passage in the book--one which forms the
close of some beggar's story about "Never more beholding Margaret
Somebody and her sunburnt child"--which would probably bring tears to
the present writer's eyes today, although he has not seen the book
since he was ten years of age.
It may be that every mature reader will miss from the list some book
or books of that precious childish literature which once throve and
flourished behind school desks. They were books founded partly on
famous history, as that of Baron Trenck and his escapes from prison,
Rinaldo Rinaldini, and The Three Spaniards. I am told that children do
not now find them in a pedlar's pack as we once found them,
accompanied by buns and peddled like them at recess time. Even if we
should find them both in such a place, they might have no such flavor
for us now. It is something if the flowers of American gossip are
retained in similar stories, even if their atmosphere is retreating
from all the hills. It is enough to know that we have for all our
children the works of Louisa Alcott and Susan Coolidge; that they (p. xv)
have Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy and Mrs. Dodge's Hans Brinker and
Miss Hale's Peterkin Papers and The William Henry Letters by Mrs.
Diaz. We need not complain so long as our children can look
inexhaustively across the ocean for Andrew Lang's latest fairy-book
and Grimm's Household Stories as introduced to a new immortality by
John Ruskin.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., _January 4, 1909_.
_APPRECIATIONS_ (p. xvii)
I think your selections very carefully made and well adapted to
children who have books at home and mothers who read them.... With
many congratulations on the excellence of your book, both in form and
substance, believe me yours sincerely,
CAROLINE M. HEWINS.
_Hartford Public Library._
You do not owe me any thanks for my little assistance, for you have
given me quite as much as I have given you. It is more stimulating
than you can believe to discuss the subject with one whose point of
view is not that of the librarian. You must not call yourself an
amateur, however, for you are an expert on children's books. I have
gained a great many ideas from you, and have enjoyed comparing notes
with you immensely.
Sincerely yours,
CLARA W. HUNT.
_Brooklyn Public Library._
I am sending back your book with my notes and suggestions. It is (p. xviii)
an uncommonly good list, however, and there is little that I have wished
to add or to take away.... Your list is so good that I know you must
have spent a great deal of time and very definite thought over it. You
have certainly covered the ground thoroughly.... I have enjoyed seeing
your list and shall be greatly interested in seeing it in final form.
Sincerely yours,
ALICE M. JORDAN.
_Boston Public Library._
_CONTENTS_ (p. xix)