Evening star., 1947-11-16
lust Between
Ourselves :.
BY Philip n. Love.

Books for the World of Tomor-
row" Is the slogan for the 28th ma
tional observance of Children's Book
Week, which begins today. And the
years most important news pertain
ing to books for boys and girls ties
right in with that slogan.
The news is that the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica's special edition
for young people has been enlarged
and improved.
Britannica Junior, as the set Is
titled, has been expanded from IL
to Is volumes. From start to finish,
it has been reset in type which chill
dren have found easiest to read.
Every article and Illustration has
been brought up to date, and the
coverage Of many subjects, in both
picture and text, is completely new.
X X \ y
" When 7 was a boy, would have
gladly swapped my bag of favorite
marbles, INCOMES" included, for a
chance to dig through such treas
ure chest of knowledge as the baby
Britannica. But nothing of the sort
was available In those days, and
what little out-of-school learning I
picked UP was incidental to the
reading of works of fiction by Mark
Twain, H. M. Tomlinson, G. A.
Henty, Ralph Henry Barbour, Arch
ibald Lee Fletcher, H. Irving Han
cock and whoever it was that wrote
the "Rover Boys" series.
Now don't misunderstood me I'm
not belittling the writings of the
favorite authors of my boyhcod; I'd
hate to have missed reading them,
and I commend them to the atten-
tion of today's youth. But young
people should not confine their out
of school reading to fiction. They
should read educational books. too,
as often as they can find any that
are of interest.
That's why am so impressed by
the new Britannica Junior. 1t Is
not only instructional, it is readable.
The reason it is a source of pleas
ure, as well as of knowledge, is that
It's editor chief, Walter Yust, un-
derstands children. He knows they
prefer a reference book that they
can use themselves, without having
to poster their parents or teachers
for help. Our editorial expert
ence and the considerable research
conducted for Brittanica through
the University of Chicago" he told
me recently. ARE reflected in the
content of articles, simplifications Of
language, choice of material to sup
plement grade-school curricula, and
in type faces. layout and art.
"Our experience has shown" he
continued, that what is excluded
from a children's reference set Is
almost as significant as what Is
included. We have excluded from
the new Britannica Junior entries
that would not be OF interest or use
to children of grade-school age.
And we have given fuller treat.
ment to those entries children ac-
tually want and need. A grade-
school pupil, for example. has little
use for a lengthy discussion Of
Logarithm,' but does need full
treatment of an entry on 'Arith-
metic."
The page design Of the new set
has been simplified, and so have the
illustrations. Two colors have been
used throughout, except in photo
graphs. All drawings follow a COM
mon style and are functional as
well as decorative.
X X X y
The set includes a Ready Refer
ence" volume, containing an il
lustrated section which explains its
use. Ready Reference is, of course.
just a fancy name for index, but
Mr.. Yust hopes that it may at
tract the child and thus encourage
him to read more extensively" on
the subjects related to the ones he
looks up.
Any boy or girl who forms the
habit of using authentic and COM
prehensive reference books is bound
to grow into a well-informed man
or woman. Hence, the new Britain,
MICA Junior tops my list of Books
for the World of Tomorrow"
(Other articles on "Childrens
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