Six Years of Age
Reading edition
"Babies do not want," said he, "to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds
".
Dr. Johnson. Recorded by Mrs. Piozzi.
Amusements And Handicraft
Happy hearts and happy faces,
Happy play in grassy places--
That was how, in ancient ages,
Children grew to kings and sages.
Stevenson.
Walker, M.C.
Lady Hollyhock and Her Friends. Baker. 1.25
Suggestions for making charming dollies from fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The illustrations, many in color, are attractive and explanatory, but the text must be read to the children, as it is somewhat advanced for them.
Geography, Travel, And Description
Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee,
O! don't you wish that you were me?
. . . . . . . . .
You have curious things to eat,
I am fed on proper meat;
You must dwell beyond the foam,
But I am safe and live at home.
Stevenson.
Andrews, Jane.
The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air. Ginn. .50
These simple stories, written for the girls and boys of a generation ago, have taken their place among the charming and vivid descriptions of child-life in different lands.
The round ball is the earth, and the sisters are the tribes that dwell thereon. The little book was conceived in a happy hour; its pictures are so real and so graphic, so warm and so human, that the most literal and the most imaginative of children must find in them, not only something to charm, but also to mould pleasant associations for maturer years.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Mythology, Folk-lore, Legends, And Fairy Tales
And as with the toys, so with the toy-books. They exist everywhere: there is no calculating the distance through which the stories come to us, the number of languages through which they have been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many of them have been narrated, almost in their present shape, for thousands of years since, to little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to their mother under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northmen Vikings as they lay on their shields on deck; and by Arabs couched under the stars on the Syrian plains when the flocks were gathered in and the mares were picketed by the tents.
Thackeray.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Aladdin. Lane. .25
These richly colored Eastern pictures will give even little children a suggestion of the splendor of the Orient. Let us hope that they will never be too ready to answer the call of "New lamps for old ones."
Walter Crane is the serious apostle of art for the nursery, who strove to beautify its ideal, to decorate its legends with a real knowledge of architecture and costume, and to mount the fairy stories with a certain archæological splendor.... As a maker of children's books, no one ever attempted the task he fulfilled so gayly, and no one since has beaten him on his own ground.
Gleeson White.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Lane. .25
It seems hardly right to omit this edition of so celebrated a tale pictured by so celebrated an artist, yet Mr. Crane's work breathes mystery and Oriental cunning from every page, and should be given to our youngsters only after examination, as a highly-strung child might be frightened by it. The picture of the resourceful Morgiana filling the oil-jars, while a dreadful robber with saucer-like eyes peers from one of them, is awful indeed.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Beauty and the Beast. Lane. .25
Charming illustrations accompany this prose version of the ancient favorite which will long endure because of the great truth underlying the grotesque tale.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Cinderella. Lane. .25
May every little girl find the fairy prince of her imagination!
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
The Frog Prince. Lane. .25
The story of the frog who was transformed into the handsome prince is as immortal as childhood. May we all remember the King's command to his daughter: "He who helped you in the time of your trouble must not now be despised."
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Jack and the Bean-Stalk. Lane. .25
Ogre-like indeed is the giant, and we breathe a sigh of relief when verses as well as pictures make it quite certain that Jack has escaped for the third time with his golden treasure. The beans of King Alfred's day seem to have closely resembled the wild oats of our own.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
The Sleeping Beauty. Lane. .25
"So sweet a face, so fair--was never beauty such as this; He stands--he stoops to gaze--he kneels-- he wakes her with a kiss. He leads her forth; the magic sleep of all the Court is o'er-- They wake, they move, they talk, they laugh, just as they did of yore A hundred years ago."
Poetry, Collections Of Poetry And Prose, And Stories Adapted From Great Authors
Children seem to possess an inherent conviction that when the hole is big enough for the cat, no smaller one at the side is needed for the kitten. They don't really care for "Glimpses" of this, or "Gleanings" of that, or "Footsteps" to the other--but would rather stretch and pull, and get on tiptoe to reach the sweeter fruit above them, than confine themselves to the crabs which grow to their level.
Miss Rigby. 1844.
Cowper, William.
*The Diverting History of John Gilpin. Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. Warne. .25
A spirited delineation of the never-to-be-forgotten ride.
Cox, Palmer.
*The Brownies: Their Book. Illustrated by the Author. Century. 1.50
Every child should know Mr. Cox's prankish, helpful Brownies. The verses are accompanied by many delightful pictures.
Hazard, Bertha
(Editor).
Three Years with the Poets. Houghton. .50
While these selections are intended for memorization by children, and are arranged by months for the school year, the collection is so good as to fill a useful place in the home library. At the end of the book are a few pages of wisely chosen little selections of poetry and prose, truly called Helps for the Day's Work.
Ostertag, Blanche
(Editor and Illustrator).
Old Songs for Young America. Music arranged by Clarence Forsyth. Doubleday. 2.00
The familiar songs, set to the music of the old tunes, and charmingly illustrated,--the costumes those of olden days. Some of the pictures are in color and some in black and white. The Monkey's Wedding, Bobby Shafto, and Old Dan Tucker, are included in the contents.
Our Children's Songs.
Harper. 1.25
This carefully chosen collection--in which American poets are well represented--although made over thirty years ago, still holds its own as a standard. One of the divisions is devoted to hymns.
Taylor, Jane
and
Ann.
Little Ann, and Other Poems. Illustrated by Kate Greenaway. Warne. 1.00
It is a good thing for children to learn from these quaint verses, with their charming illustrations, the sort of reading which pleased the small folks of long ago. The Taylors seldom struck so happy a vein as in the poem called The Field Daisy, which begins:
"I'm a pretty little thing, Always coming with the Spring; In the meadows green I'm found, Peeping just above the ground, And my stalk is covered flat With a white and yellow hat."
I prefer the little girls and boys ... that come as you call them, fair or dark, in green ribbons or blue. I like making cowslip fields grow and apple-trees bloom at a moment's notice. That is what it is, you see, to have gone through life with an enchanted land ever beside you.--Kate Greenaway to Ruskin.
Religion And Ethics
Little Jesus, wast Thou shy
Once, and just so small as I?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of Heaven, and just like me?
Didst Thou sometimes think of
there
,
And ask where all the angels were?
I should think that I would cry
For my house all made of sky;
I would look about the air,
And wonder where the angels were;
And at waking 'twould distress me--
Not an angel there to dress me!
Hadst Thou ever any toys,
Like us little girls and boys?
And didst Thou play in Heaven with all
The angels, that were not too tall,
With stars for marbles? Did the things
Play
Can you see me?
through their wings?
Francis Thompson.
The Bible For Young People.
Century. 1.50
This careful chronological arrangement of Bible history, from the King James version, is very satisfactory. The book is a large one, with full-page illustrations from the Old Masters.
Stories
It is enough fame for any author to be loved by children, generation after generation, long after he himself has left the scene.
W. A. Jones. 1844.
Abbott, Jacob.
A Boy on a Farm. Edited by Clifton Johnson. From Rollo at Work and Rollo at Play. Introduction by Dr. Lyman Abbott. American Book. .45
Few books axe remembered with greater affection by persons who were children in the middle of the last century than those written by Jacob Abbott.... The educational effect of Jacob Abbott's stories, both mental and moral, was very great.... The insistence, however, with which these virtues were proclaimed and emphasized, constitutes a weakness in the books as we view them now.--Preface.
Here we have the very saturnalia of common-sense.... These works are invaluable to fathers; by keeping always one volume in advance of his oldest son, a man can stand before the household, an encyclopædia of every practical art.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Crane, Walter
(Illustrator).
Goody Two Shoes. Lane. .25
The text of this famous tale, attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, is perhaps somewhat beyond the easy comprehension of children of six years, but they will enjoy the interesting pictures of Margery and her animal friends.
Scudder, H.E.
(Editor).
The Children's Book. Houghton. 2.50
If a child could have but one story-book, a better choice could scarcely be made than this storehouse of fables, wonder tales, myths, songs, and ballads. Selections from Andersen, The Arabian Nights, Gulliver, and Munchausen, are included. There are many illustrations.
Trimmer, S. (K).
The History of the Robins. Edited by E. E. Hale. Heath. .20
Small people like to hear about this father and mother robin and their four babies.
Mrs. Sarah Trimmer ... was a woman of more than the average education and accomplishment of her day, and enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and nearly all of the more celebrated English authors and painters of that time. She wrote a great many books.... They are now nearly all of them dead and forgotten; but one of them at least has lived, and has been the delight of thousands of children for over three-quarters of a century.--Introduction.
Wiggin, K. D. (S.), and N. A. Smith.
The Story Hour. Houghton. 1.00
These fourteen little stories include some about children and some about animals. They are just the sort of narratives that small folks love, and are designed for retelling in the kindergarten and home. There are, in addition, three adaptations of well-known tales: Moufflou, Benjy in Beastland, and The Porcelain Stove, and a poem by Mrs. Wiggin.