[47] The general complaint among librarians is that these picture-books
of the best type are too rare and too expensive to purchase in large
quantities for general circulation.
[48] Read Stevenson’s “A Penny Plain” in Memories and Portraits; also
“The Dime Novel in American Life,” by Charles M. Harvey, _Atlantic_,
100:37 (July, 1907).
[49] By Archdeacon Wilberforce, Hannah More’s friend.
[50] _Vide_ “Reading for Boys and Girls,” by Everett T. Tomlinson.
_Atlantic_, 86:693 (Nov., 1900).
[51] Article on Children’s Books. Reprinted in _Living Age_, Aug. 10,
1844, 2:1.
[52] There was the Elliptical Questioning--a form of “drawing out” and
“injecting” knowledge and information.
[53] In a letter to the author, Mr. C. G. Leland, Superintendent of the
Bureau of Libraries, New York Board of Education, plainly states the
province and the mission of the school library. He writes: “Nearly all
of our educational institutions nowadays are very busily engaged in
supplying _useful information_. The practical is crowding everything
else out of their courses of study. The kind of knowledge that will
help in the future struggle for existence and material betterment is
being demanded more and more and is being taught to the exclusion of
much that is only ethical or cultural.
“As a continual protest against this materialistic tendency the school
library takes its position and marshals its books. Its first purpose is
to create a love for good literature and beautiful pictures as soon as
the child has mastered the mechanics of reading; its ultimate aim is
culture.
“In the elementary school the library should reach to every class-room
and offer there a few very attractive and very carefully selected
books, so attractive and so well graded that the most indifferent boy
or girl will be led by easy stages into the green fields of literature.
“The class-room is still the strategic point, for even homes of
refinement are wont to delegate the work of directing the children’s
reading to the school, and the teacher with her case of well-known
books has every day opportunities denied to public librarian and to the
majority of parents.
“The school library naturally points the way to the public library; its
relation to that institution is that of the preparatory school to the
university.
“In supplying reference-books, and in correlating a certain amount of
recreative reading with the school course, the library has another
important field, but one which should be subordinated to the larger and
broader function.”
[54] This involves a careful consideration of a juvenile reference
library.
[55] Heinrich Wolgast, the German authority, has written: “Vom
Kinderbuch,” Leipzig, Teubner, 1906.
[56] _Vide_ London _Library Association Record_, Feb. 15, 1907.
[57] This last statement, however, may be refuted by the répertoire of
a Yiddish theatre. I have witnessed the theme of “King Lear” applied to
Jewish life, and followed with bated breath by the boy in the gallery.
[58] Stevenson’s father once stood outside the door and recorded one of
these impromptu poems. The Rev. Charles Kingsley, when a boy, is said
to have done the same thing.
[59] _Vide_ W. M. Rossetti’s Memoirs of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Chap.
VI, Childish Book Reading and Scribbling.