The Portland daily press., 1898-06-04
READING FOR A CHILD.
Suggestions to Father Who Asked for
Proper Reading for Child.

what is the proper reading for girl
tan years old?" This Is question which
has been asked the New York Sun, and
which many correspondents are now en-
deayoring to answer and illuminate. The
question is none the less interesting in
Denver. and lends itself to suggestions
and discussion from great many points
of vinw. One correspondent suggests that
ju;t because the girl shows propensity
to read every book she comes across doesn' t
warrant those who arc to guide her to
womanhood in INDUCING her in that pro-
pensity. 1t will be time enough to give
her list of books when she is is years
old, he says.
'"Assuming, he continued, THAT at
10 her father desires such IA list, let him
give her Prescott and Motsly to begin
with. Each is a master of an easy, fluent,
copious style. Style is formed through
the perusal of the best prose. After Pres
cott and Motely she may read Bancroft,
Parkman and McMaster. For lighter
reading there is Washington Irving If
she digests these authors with profit, she
will need no further guidance; her taste
will have been formed and she may be
trusted to select her own further read
ing
Another correspondent writes:
Here is q list of some of my old ia
vorites, ten in number. 1t may posi-
bly, be said that one or two are toe old,
but any child who can read with interest
Irving's 'Alhambra,' Uncle Toms Ca
bin,' etc., can surely read with equal
pleasure Lorna Doone' and the 'Cloister
and the Hearth 'Amyas Leigh I'm
little doubtful of, but as it tells the story
of an earlier Spanish armada, some 400
years back, L think it may be included,
especially as it is hardly any deeper
than Dickens's Child History
g Tales FROM ShakesT eare,' Charles
Lamb.
'Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Haw-
thorne.
60 'Thaddeus of Warsaw Miss Porter
- Children of the Abbey Miss Porter
g Lorna Doone,' Blaokmore
q 'Cloister and the II EARTH Charles
Reade.
90 'Ivanhoe,' Scott.
g IS tory of Bad Boy Thomas Bal
ley Aldrich. -
'Amyas Leigh, Or Westward Hol'
Charles Kingsley.
50 ~ alter Babies Charles Kingsley.
"There is condensed edition of this
last which has all the sweetness and
beauty of the original. unmarried by what
would be defects to child in the una
bridged edition."
Still another suggests that if the father
of the little girl will select some of the
many beautiful stories from Homer and
The Bible he will have a literature really
suitable for children. He quotes Charles
Dudley Warner as aving said that it is a
mistake to think that children need to
have books specially written for them
and Ernest Renan, who says that Homer
and the Bible are the TWO children's
books par excellence.
Antoinette W. Butler writes from
Brooklyn, Il also have d daughter ten
years old who is great reader, and here
Is a list of her most valued books:
Through the Looking Glass" Lewis
Carroll.
water Babies" Charles Kingsley.
First and Second Jungle Book BUD.
yard Kipling.
Story of Babette,' Mrs Ruth Meme
ry Stuart.
IanSl6WOCC IdleS, Grandfather S
Chair, T" Wonder Book, :" Nathaniel Haw.
thorne
ga Little Book of Profitable Tales, d.
Love Songs of Childhood Eugene
Field.
plants and Their Children Mrs.
William Starr Dana.
Tales from Shakespeare" Charles and
Mary Lamb.
Little Lame Prince Miss Mulock.
''SWiSS Family Robins -
'sPeterkin Papers Lucretia Hale.
ARABIAN Nights
boy of the First Empire, % "Ameri-
can Revolution - Famous Americans, -
Elbridge 5. Brooks
Pollard.
''Hiawatha, Longfellow.
Hans Brinker," Mary Mapes Dodge
Pilgrim Progress" Bunyan.
s'The Bow OF Orange Ribbon. - Amelia
e. Barr
st. Nicholas Magazine.
Jeanette Barnett gives the largest list
that is published, but it is none the less
interesting on that account.
I'm Story Land, Elizabeth Harrison.
-Four Winds Farm ''The Cuckoo
Clock Mrs Wordsworth.
''In the Child's Wolld,' Emily Poul-
son.
1.-THE Proud Little Grain of Wheat, -
THE Silver Skates" Mary Mapes
Dodge.
"Bodley Family Telling stories," Ed.
ward e. Hale.
Morning Ialks,'' Wilkes.
''Stories from Fairy Land,''
"Water Babies. % "Greek Heroes"
Charles Kingsley.
Jungle Books, Man and Beast in In
dia,'' Kipling.
''Tanglewood Tales" "Grandfather's
Chair" Hawthorne.
"Seyen Little Sisters, Each and All, ~
Andrews.
'Ten Boys On the Road from Long
Ago to Now" Andrews.
"Old Greek Stories, y "The Story of
Sigrfied," Stories Of the Golden Age, -
Baldwin.
''Plutarch for Boys and Girls" White.
"a Little Book of Profitable Tales. -
"a Second Book of L ales, - "Love Songs
of Childhood Eugene Field.
Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb.
Stories from Homer, Hero6otus, Vir.
gil, Church.
king of the Golden River" Ruskin,
Letters from My MILL" Daudet.
"Young Folks Histories" ''The Little