Evening star., 1936-12-04
Building Up
Book Shelf
For Young
Encourage Collection
of Gems in Lit
erature.
By ANGELO PATRI.

THE world is full Of books good
books for children. They come
m q steady stream, and the chill
dren devour them greedily-sood and
not SO good and empty Of content.
All are welcomed, read and-then
what?
The empty one IS invariably left
about the house until somebody either
gives 1t away or sends it to the waste
paper box under the back porch to
wait the day of the waste collector.
The not-so-good find a place on the
shelf, and they stay in that place until
cleaning time. "You don't want all
these books, do you, Joan? Do you,
Junior?"
well, I don't know. Save my
'Bre'r Rabbit and my Treasure
Island and. of course, my David
Copperfeld' Here. All on this shelf
you don't touch, but the rest. I don't
SO much care. You can send them
to the children's lending library, or
the Salvation Army, or anywhere.
Only not these"
Many books that children read must
60 this way. They make happy hour
and pass. A few stay and stay through
the years. Such old standbys become
Q part of the child's heritage of beauty,
and their value Is beyond count. Their
price is very cheap compared with the
rich endowment they bestow upon the
child who reads and loves them.
Words, whole sentences-even entire
chapters-are blended into the child's
remain for good.
Time Sits the values in books. What
Is hailed as the best selling book Of
the day. "the" book for children to read,
may last season, and, though rarely,
1t may last liftime. generation and
beyond. If it lasts like that you can be
certain that it holds values so precious
and so rare as to defy the staleness
Of custom and the vagaries Of fashion.
Perhaps you remember the days when
"Little Lord Fauntleroy" was a best
seller. The children did not read it.
If am any judge. but their mothers
did. There was a good market for
velvet and for lace collars and cuffs,
and the BARRIERS suffered slight that
they were slow to forgive. Time healed
that wound. Little Lord Fauntleroy"
Is no more. But Bre'r Rabbit? O,
he's still kicking in the briar patch.
Eevery family who loves reading
%ha cfo ihIy
OF battered veterans is reverenced and
loved beyond the liking for the newer.
brighter dressed rows that mount to-
ward the ceiling. Just keep Jane
Austin handy, and Don Quixote.'
Leave that shelf Just as 1t Is. know
1t Is a bit shabby, but o. well, just
leave it."
And Junior runs to rescue his own,
and Joan hers. The family standbys
take root and grow in the minds and
hearts Of all those who own and read
them. That IS the distinguishing
mark of the standby book. Its owner
reads it. turns to favorite paragraphs
and pages, opens the book at random
and begins, soon to be lost IN that
world where the wicked cease from
troubling and the troubler Is unknown.
Some standbys that see cherished:
"Bre'r Rabbit" Mother Goose"
@Treasure Island" David Copper
feld," "Andersen's Fairy Tales"
'Bible Stories." the Unabridged Die
tionary," a Kate Greenaway picture
book. There are some on your own
shelf. The little collection IS just be-
ginning to edge along the shelf that
the child In the house calls his. These
are precious things and greatly to be
praised. Welcome every new and un-
tried book. It may be standby. but
hold the old and tried and beloved.
They are standbys.
tCopyright. 1850