Since this series of books is intended for all young people from one
to one hundred, it opens with about eighty of the old MOTHER GOOSE
RHYMES. Nothing better was ever invented to tell to little folks who
are young enough for lullabies. Their rhythm, their humor, and their
pith will always cause us to prize them as the Babies' Classics.
Next come a score of the most famous NURSERY TALES, the kind that
children cry for and love to hear fifty times over. And since, just
as soon as little folks like stories they love to hear them in rhyme,
here are forty CHILDREN'S FAVORITE POEMS.
What would young life be without "Puss in Boots" and "Little Red
Riding Hood" and "The Sleeping Beauty"? Our TREASURY would indeed be
poor without them, so these FAVORITE STORIES come next, yoked
with some OLD-FASHIONED POEMS in story-form, as "The Night before
Christmas," "The Wonderful World," and "Little Orphant Annie." All who
love pets and animals have always liked FABLES, so here are the noted
parables of Æsop, and the lesser-known but even more jolly tales from
East Indian sources.
The fairy-tale age is supposed to come from four to nine, but the
editors are sure it lasts much longer than that. However this may be,
the better half of our first volume is given up to FAIRY TALES AND
LAUGHTER STORIES from all over the world.
It ends with TALES FOR TINY TOTS, the kind that mother reads beside
the fire at bedtime, some of them old, like the "Little Red Hen" and
"Peter Rabbit," and some of them newer, like "The Greedy Brownie" and
"The Birthday Honors of the Fairy Queen."