The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-03-27
TELLS BENEFIT OF
CHILDREN READING
Miss Joanna Sprague Reads
Instructive Paper Before
Mothers Congress.
NAMES THE BEST BOOKS
HOW TO SELECT LITERATURE
THAT PLEAsEs AND INsTRucTs.

An interesting and Instructive pape,
was read by Miss Joanna spragus be-
fore the Mothers Congress at the hom,
of Mrs. H. @. MCMILLAN Saturday aft.
ernoon. March IL. Miss Sprasua, who
has been the efficient librarian Of th.
Packard public library for g number
Of years. has carefully studied the sub
ject from all sides, and from persona
experience, and gave the results Of her
investigation in scholarly style. Hel
address was as follows:
The first thing, and the most Inn.
portant thing. to my mind, about chill.
dren's reading. is that they should
learn 10 like to read. I never see q
child curled up with a book on q rainy
DAY, Obvious to surroundings, trans
ported to another world. that 1 do not
| think or the resource such a habit will
be to him in the rainy days that are
bound to come as he goes on through
life. That person has a valuable asset
In life whose instinct 1t is to turn to a
book on rainy days for distraction and
Inspiration; on bright days for SYM
pathy and companionship.
$50 there seems to me (perhaps be-
cause I am Hbrarian) there is almost
no better gift for the child than this
one OF the reading habit. In my ex-
preience with children (Which is larger
than you may think l have discov-
cred that there are just as many diff
ferent kinds of children as there are
grown people, and If children are to
con books, books suited to their indi-
vidual tastes must be provided for
them This does not mean that a child
should be allowed to read trash be-
la IQaEft DO
that If a boy does not care for the
King Arthur stories, and does like a
good, wholesome adventure or his
torical story. he should not be COM
PEELED to read the King Arthur There
are children, as there are grown peo-
pie, who have no natural fondness for
books. If a child does not enjoy the
best books, try the second best. Give
him some wholesome, natural book
that he can enjoy, and trust to time
and the reading to improve his taste.
Few Are Bookworms.
There is just one sort of a child
who should, it seems to ma have no
concessions made to his individual
tastes. About one child, ] should say,
In every hundred is born a natural
bookworm. The mother Of such a child
has a wonderful opportunity. II, in
stead Of allowing the child to devour
everything that comes in his way md
telling. as I have occasionally heard
mothers tell with pride that Johnnie
reads absolutely everything that comes
into the house, even the newspapers,
II, instead of this, she would see that
johnnie had the opportunity to read
nothing but the very classics OF chill
dren's literature until he was perhaps
IA, she would find that his reading
would need little supervision after
ward.
This paper, however, considers the
average child, that blessed average
child. with the perfectly open mind,
ready to consider what may be Of
fered by home, school or library, but
Who doesn't proposed to be bored IL it
can be avoided, and who views books
along with other things entirely on
their merits as he sees them. Mr.
Hitcher, In an article on children's
reading In one of our library journals,
says that, roughly speaking, we recog-
nize three periods from birth to ma
turity. The first, that of the young
child. from infancy to or years. The
second from or to Is or Il, and the
third that period so indefinite and diff
fering so greatly in individuals, be-
tween 1S and IA and something ap-
pIodCuiuB maturity.
THE first age-from infancy to over
9, is a period when a child who has
been fortunate in selecting his ances-
tors, gets his introduction to the world
of books through the ear. Before he
can read at all, he knows Mother
Goose by heart, and good many of
the classic old fairy stories. Perhaps
the little child's natural love of rythm
has been cultivated, and he knows some
of the poems from Stevenson's Child's
Garden Of Verse, or Fields Lullaby
Land, or Sherman's Little Folks
Lyrics. Then as he learns to read he is
ready for his Andersen and his Grimm,
his Arabian Nights and Alice in Won
derland. For this first period, the fairy
tale is the literature the child's imag-
ination demands. There is a great deal
Of discussion as to the modern fairy
tale-why it is not a success. And.
generally speaking, ii is not The most
obvious reason seems to be that the old
tales were written by geniuses, who !
remembered what little children minds |
and imaginations were. There is no |
reason in the world why a modern fairy |
tale should not be a work of art But |
the fact remains that it seldom is. We
have, however, Kipling's Jungle Books,
which / imagine the children of the
the Uncle Remus' stories, which are a
delight to children, either told or read
to them. Then the Lang colored fairy
books, with one or two exceptions, are
especially as giving the chill
iren an insight into manners and Gus
toms of other lands There are, too.
many collections of fables and myths,
we'll edited. which. If the child enjoys !
hem, will give him an excellent founda-
ion for his mythology later on.
Must Enjoy Reading.
But only If ne enjoys them. This j
'eading habit the librarians talk so q
much about Will never be habit IL II {
s begun as a task; small children at :
ny rate should never be forced to read. :
t goes without saying that their read I
ng should not encroach on their play S
ime. Whether they are read to, or read, 4
ct the stories or poems be of the best,
nd let them be such as they enjoy. So !,
much for the reading Of the small child. &
When we take ur children OF the n
ext ages or to Is or 14-that feature b
f the modern novel, the sex problem, u
resents itself Up to s or 8, as far as
eading goes, they are not little boys :
nd girls, but children. The Sleeping c
beauty does not appeal more to little {
iris than to little boys. nor does Jack I
he Giant Killer enthrall the small boy 4
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