The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-30
Children's Books.

It is not sufficiently realized by those who
have the responsibility of the care and edu-
cation of children how much the character
Is determined by what the children and
young people read. In books will be found
healthful mental and moral food, unsatis-
flying and useless chat. and deadly poison
the poison being usually destructive in pro-
portion as IL is made attractive
Our children are kept from the store
houses of rich food, from the flowery fie Ids
OF sweetest poetry, from the scenes of thrill
ling romance and noble adventure, from
contact with great souls of past and present
time, simply through the ignorance and
carelessness of parents and teachers, who
seem to think that giddy girl or impetuOus
youth is being kept out OF mischief if the
attention is absorbed in "a book. The vast
multitude of silent companions entering our
homes day by day must have our careful
scrutiny, or they may put out the light of
associate with other children who are
vicious and ill-mannered. We are bound
to exercise equal care in the choice of these
companions, whom they implicitly believe,
and must see to it that the things which
they know to be "true, because the book
says So" are true, pure, honest and of good
report.
There never was time when it was so
easy to obtain ut a comparatively small
cost the best reading for children and young
people. Fathers and mothers and teachers
should not be satisfied with the Sunday
School and Circulating Library. The Sun
day School book describing impOssbly good
children has not made religion easy tor the
little folks. These religious novelettes, de-
veloped during the last century, have not
improved in character in our day. The re-
Iigious novel, on a larger plan, with few
exceptions, has proved failure. The field
of fiction allotted to the Sunday School
story books needs great deal of wedding.
We would be glad to see some noisome
growths plucked up by the roots, the ground
cleared and some good seed sown.
We would have every child OF our ac-
auaintance and of our friends early supplied
with the old Tales of Mother Goose and the
Nursery Rhymes first of all. We would
have them led on to the Arabian Nights, to
know Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Fam
lily Robinson. They should soon become Ia
miliar with Hans Christian Anderson and
the Brothers Grimm, with Hawthorne'S
Twice-tOld Tales, with the real boys and
girls of Miss Alcotts charming volumes,
with Tom Browns School Days, and led
finally to love for Scotts novels, for
Cooper and Thackeray and Dickens We
would have them become familiar, too, with
the pictures OF real life in the Book of Books
mot from Bible Stories" or the Bible
Made Easy" but from the unabridged YER
sion which tells in matchless prose the story
Of Joseph, OF Samuel, and David OF the
Holy Child, the Goldman Christ Jesus ana
Of the labors Of the great st. Paul. There
are charming books OH natural history, OF
biography and travel; books on games,
amusementS, hunting anu nshlnS- lheFe
are noble serials, such as Kingston's Boys
Annual, Harpers' Young People, and lead
ing them all. as the finest Juvenile serial in
any tongue, st. Nicholas Magazine Inc
children OF the last generation had not ae-
ee-s To such a wealth of old and new reading
for children and youth. These most whole
sone companions come to US by every mall
Thev glisten in gold aIrd color on the eoun-
fer and shelf of the bookseller. They have
In them springs of unbouuded happiness tor
soue of our young people They are better
for them than expensive toys and vanishing
confectionery. Would it not be whole
some exercise to search our houses and find
ont what our boys and girls are actually
reading? It would be a good Investment,
saving money, time, patience and perhaps
many a heart ache, If the rubbish OF the
dime-uoveI order, the oliver Optic tribe,
tha sensational ehaf and the noxious poison
were removed. It will pay TO put up IN
each bows or girls room neat shelf ana
tiII az with wholesome mental food "such
as the soul lOveth-" - ...
C,hiIdren,s books are more than ever at
tracfive this year, and our booksellers de-
serve high praise for putting so many oil
them within our reach.
Honolulu, Christmas Holidays, 1882