ABOUT THE SERIES |HARLES ELIOT NORTON summed up the problem of the child's reading by saying: "The child's first reading should consist mainly in what may cultivate his ear for the music of verse and may rouse his fancy. And to this end nothing is better than the ryhmes and jingles which have sung themselves, generation after generation, in the nursery or on the playground. 'Mother Goose' is the best Primer. No matter if the rhymes be nonsense verses; many a poet might learn the lesson of good versification from them, and the child in repeating them is acquiring the accent of emphasis and of rhythmical form." And again, Andrew Lang in his "Treatise on Apperception" says: "The German popular fairy tales have rightly found an abiding place in school instruction. They have great national educational value, since they reflect the thoughts and feelings, the näive view of creation characteristic of the youthful period of our people, and since they disclose the noblest traits in the souls of the people,—fidelity and moral purity. Above all they are in sympathy with the child's way of looking at things,—his yearnings and feelings." "The fairy tale is closely followed by the heroic saga. Since the saga treads earthly ways more than the fairy tale, and turns with preference to human figures and deeds, as it connects its tales with definite persons and places, and not seldom mingles with these some real historical facts, so it forms the natural transition from the fairy tale to history; it carries over the imaginative view of the world, characteristic of the child, into the rational." The series of "The Folk-Lore Readers" represents an attempt to organize the choicest of the world's folk-lore material, which has been available hitherto only in individual and ungraded books. Beginning in the Primer with the best of the Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes, the series contains selected material from Æsop, La Fontaine, Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, the brothers Grimm, the classic writers of Greece and Rome, and many others who have put into literary form the folk tales of the different nations. In the higher books of the series the material is chosen from the world's best literature, with the emphasis on the folk-lore and legendary side. In these books selections are made from such works as "King of the Golden River" by John Ruskin, "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, "Hiawatha" by Henry W. Longfellow, "Gulliver's Travels" by Dean Swift and "The Adventures of Ulysses" by Charles Lamb. The thought of the series is not only to make the child acquainted with the folk-lore literature of his own and other nations, but to appeal to and develop his imagination along legitimate and profitable lines. The training of the imagination is one of the pressing needs of our American education. E. O. G. The Art-Literature Readers BY FRANCES ELIZABETH CHUTTER AND EULALIE OSGOOD GROVER The Primer. The lessons in the "Art-Literature Primer" are drawn from famous paintings and familiar rhymes which deal with children's interests and activities. They are short, dramatic and colloquial. They teach the child to read as he talks. It is one of the simplest Primers published, with a vocabulary of only 258 words. Illustrated with 43 reproductions of famous paintings in colors by the duotype process. Cloth, 112 pages. Price, 30 cents. Book One. This book continues the lessons of the Primer, the increase in difficulty being very slight. A larger number of pieces of literature are worked into the lessons than in any other First Reader. With 42 reproductions of paintings in colors by the duotype process. Cloth, 112 pages. Price, 30 cents. Book Two. In this book the biographical sketches of authors and artists are introduced as a part of the reading matter for the child. The authors so treated are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Louis Stevenson; the artists are Sir Joshua Reynolds and Rosa Bonheur. The biographical sketches and the work of each of these authors and artists are grouped so as to give a connected story and emphasize their personalities. Many other authors and artists are represented. Illustrated with 38 reproductions of portraits and famous paintings in colors by the duotype process. Cloth, 160 pages. Price, 40 cents. Book Three. The distinguishing features of this book are its careful grading, its delightful biographical sketches, its grouping of the work of the authors and artists and its reproductions of famous paintings in two colors by the duotype process. The authors treated biographically are Eugene Field, John G. Whittier, Hans Christian Anderson, Louisa M. Alcott, Laura E. Richards, Celia Thaxter, Lucy Larcom, Louis Carroll. The artists so treated are Sir Edwin Landseer and Thomas Gainsborough. Cloth, 224 pages. Price, 50 cents. Book Four. In this book the boys and girls are introduced to two of Spain's greatest artists, Don Diego Velasquez, and Bartolome Esteban Murillo, to eight of the world's most notable writers, James Whitcomb Riley, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Kingsley, Helen Hunt Jackson, George MacDonald, Dinah Mulock Craik, Æsop and Ernest Thompson Seton. There are biographical sketches of each author and artist and the work of each is grouped as a section. Cloth, 256 pages. Price, 50 cents. Book Five. The same high grade text and illustrations which are such distinguishing features of the preceding numbers of this series characterize also the "Art-Literature Fifth Reader.' The authors represented are Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Dudley Warner, James Fenimore Cooper, Jean Ingelow, Joel Chandler Harris, and Thomas Hughes, and the artists Jean Francois Millet and Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Cloth, 290 pages. Price, 50 cents. The Folk-Lore Readers BY EULALIE Osgood Grover, AUTHOR OF "THE SUNBONNET Babies' Primer,” “The OVERALL BOYS, a First Reader," "The Outdoor Primer," etc. Folk-Lore Primer. The book has a vocabulary of only 285 words and is illustrated throughout in colors by Margaret Ely Webb. Cloth, 112 pages. Price, 30 cents. Folk-Lore First Reader. Illustrated throughout in colors by Margaret Ely ATKINSON, MENTZER & COMPANY, Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas |