A Mothers List of Books for Children | Page 2

two years old until fourteen. The whole number of
books being very large, there is no overdue limitation, and this forms the simple but
magical method of reaching every variety of childish mind.
Thus excellent have been the changes: yet it is curious to (p. xiii) observe on closer study
that the two classes of books which represent the two extremes among the childish
readers--Mother Hubbard and Shakespeare--may still be said to be the opposite poles
between which the whole world of juvenile literature hangs suspended. A child needs to
be supplied with a proper diet of fancy as well as of fact; and of fact as well as fancy. He
is usually so constituted that if he were to find a fairy every morning in his bread and
milk at breakfast, it would not very much surprise him; while yet his appetite for the
substantial food remains the same. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland seem nowhere very
strange to him, while Chaucer and Spenser need only to be simply told, while Dana's
Two Years Before the Mast and Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby hold their

own as well as Jack and the Bean-Stalk. Grown up people have their prejudices, but
children have few or none. A pound of feathers and a pound of lead will usually be found
to weigh the same in their scales. Nay, we, their grandparents, know by experience that
there may be early cadences in their ears which may last all their lives. For instance,
Caroline (p. xiv) Fry's Listener would now scarcely find a reader in any group of children,
yet there is one passage in the book--one which forms the close of some beggar's story
about "Never more beholding Margaret Somebody and her sunburnt child"--which would
probably bring tears to the present writer's eyes today, although he has not seen the book
since he was ten years of age.
It may be that every mature reader will miss from the list some book or books of that
precious childish literature which once throve and flourished behind school desks. They
were books founded partly on famous history, as that of Baron Trenck and his escapes
from prison, Rinaldo Rinaldini, and The Three Spaniards. I am told that children do not
now find them in a pedlar's pack as we once found them, accompanied by buns and
peddled like them at recess time. Even if we should find them both in such a place, they
might have no such flavor for us now. It is something if the flowers of American gossip
are retained in similar stories, even if their atmosphere is retreating from all the hills. It is
enough to know that we have for all our children the works of Louisa Alcott and Susan
Coolidge; that they (p. xv) have Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy and Mrs. Dodge's Hans
Brinker and Miss Hale's Peterkin Papers and The William Henry Letters by Mrs. Diaz.
We need not complain so long as our children can look inexhaustively across the ocean
for Andrew Lang's latest fairy-book and Grimm's Household Stories as introduced to a
new immortality by John Ruskin. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., January 4, 1909.

APPRECIATIONS (p. xvii)
I think your selections very carefully made and well adapted to children who have books
at home and mothers who read them.... With many congratulations on the excellence of
your book, both in form and substance, believe me yours sincerely, CAROLINE M.
HEWINS. Hartford Public Library.
You do not owe me any thanks for my little assistance, for you have given me quite as
much as I have given you. It is more stimulating than you can believe to discuss the
subject with one whose point of view is not that of the librarian. You must not call
yourself an amateur, however, for you are an expert on children's books. I have gained a
great many ideas from you, and have enjoyed comparing notes with you immensely.
Sincerely yours, CLARA W. HUNT. Brooklyn Public Library.
I am sending back your book with my notes and suggestions. It is (p. xviii) an
uncommonly good list, however, and there is little that I have wished to add or to take
away.... Your list is so good that I know you must have spent a great deal of time and
very definite thought over it. You have certainly covered the ground thoroughly.... I have
enjoyed seeing your list and shall be greatly interested in seeing it in final form.

Sincerely yours, ALICE M. JORDAN. Boston Public Library.

CONTENTS (p. xix)
PREFACE ......................................... ix
A MOTHER'S LIST BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON ... xi
APPRECIATIONS ................................. xvii
TWO YEARS OF AGE ................................ 21
THREE YEARS OF AGE .............................. 23
FOUR YEARS OF AGE ............................... 28
FIVE YEARS OF AGE