Roanoke Rapids daily herald., 1948-11-26
Good Books
For Chi|d's
Christmas
By GARRY CLEVELAND MYERS. Ph.D.

WHILE planning now to select
Christmas gifts for your children,
hope you consider good books. It's
better to buy few good, attractive
ones than many poor, ugly ones. A
good way to select books intelligent
ly is to go to your public library and
talk to the person there who spe-
cializes on children's books. Ask her
to see some of the newer ones and
some of the older ones suited to
your child or children. You would
be wise parent to select for gift
one of these older books for every
new one.
1t is wonderful if your child, es-
pecially the younger child, goes with
you. Often book appealing to the
child seven or eight is good to read
to the child four or five. 1t is fine
when the older child reads to the
younger.
School Principal
Also your child's teacher or school
principal might be glad to advise
you on choosing books for Christ
mas gifts.
Spend some time at a good book
store. By all means, look over the
array of "Golden Books" You hard
ly could go wrong choosing any of
them. For content and beauty, they
are rarely excelled in the moderate
price range.
In many a book store there are
persons who can advise well on
what is best among children's books,
and the books are there to examine.
However, the person selling books
might not always be as unbiased in
her judgment as is teacher or Ii
brarian. Naturally, she will incline
more to emphasize the book just off
the press rather than the book
few years older (Which may be bet
teri. And she hardly ever will, alas,
show you copies of the most pre-
cious books published years ago. She
might, however, show you some of
the current beautiful reprints of a
number of the classics for children,
such as "Pinocchio," ""Alice in Won
derland," "King of the Golden Riv-
err" "Robinson Crusoe."
Recent Books
Among the books published last
year or during the last few years
that will be worth your examining
are: "Mr. and Mrs. Noah," by Lois
Lenski; "About Peter Platipus," by
Inez Hogan; "Wee Gillis," by Mon
70 Leaf; "Mister Penny" by Marie
Hall Ets; "Chin Ling, the Chinese
Cricket" by Alison Stilwell; "Hop-
pity" by Miriam E. Mason; "Peter
the Great" by Dwight Logan; 1.-THE
Little Fisherman" by Margaret
Wise Brown (Ask to see other books
by this author.); "Strawberry Girl"
by Lois Lenski; "Nothing-at-all,"
by Wanda Gag; "Always Reddy,"
by Marguerite Henry; "Boats on
the River" by Marjorie Flack;
;endly Animals" by Louis Slo-
when 1t Rained Cats and
" Nancy Byrd Farmer;
tile Red Engine" by Diana
"Animal Facts and Falla-
..ss, by Osmond P. Breland, and
many others.
By writing me, enclosing self
addressed stamped envelope, you
may receive two special lists of
books which have stood the test of
several years or of many, many
years. The first list is Books from
Which to Read to the Baby and
Young Child" Mrs. Myers helped
me prepare this list. The second one
is "Books for Children from 6 to y
to Read" Miss Margaret Clark,
head of The Lewis Carroll Room,
Cleveland Public Library, helped me
prepare this list.
If you have the time and interest
for thorough study of children's
books, read that most unusual re-
cent volume, children and Books"
by May Hill Arbuthnot. Every up
to-date library has copy of it.
Answering Parents Questions
@. Our son four tells imaginary
things he or others have done as if
they really happened.
A. Enjoy his yarns of fantasy
and help him practice at telling of
experiences of his and others that
really happened and those he just
pretended happened. Never label his
wild yarns as lies. my bulletin,
"Now Come the Fairies," may be
had in a stamped envelope.)