Public-domain ebook
The book of one syllable
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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #23453.
About this book
The Book of One Syllable is a collection of children’s stories and simple lessons about conduct and the natural world. Its tales place young readers in familiar moral scenes, as in Ruth Grey’s struggle to resist temptation, face shame, and learn self-rule after giving in to a wish for forbidden sweets. Alongside such instructive stories are clear accounts of subjects including air, earth, the moon, and the sun, as well as tales of danger, loss, play, and faults that grow worse when unchecked. The book is designed to keep a child reading without pausing to spell, using short, accessible words while still offering substantial ideas.
Its voice is earnest, direct, and gently admonishing, with a strong emphasis on conscience, kindness, restraint, and the lasting effects of one’s choices. The nineteenth-century style speaks plainly to children but does not avoid serious feelings such as grief, shame, or fear. The blend of moral fiction, domestic scenes, and elementary natural philosophy will suit young readers ready to read common words at sight, as well as adults interested in the period’s approach to children’s education and character.
Characters in The book of one syllable
- Ruth GreyYoung Victorian girl with modest brown dress, neatly parted hair, and a wistful, resolute expression.
The opening · free to read
To the Friends of My Youth
Fast and far is the stream of time flown on, yet there are thoughts of dear friends and of by-gone things that will not yield to its course. Some friends have long been lost, but there are those who still sail the stream, to whom these scenes from the past will bring back "thoughts of days that are gone." They will bring back thoughts of her whose sails were once set with theirs, and who feels that not one kind word that was then said, not one kind deed that was then done, can the stream wash from her mind, till she, too, shall be lost in the dark gulf to which that stream must lead.
Four of these tales have no hook to the past. These are told by a young boy and girl, who have been taught to write thoughts as soon as they could hold their pens.
PREFACE.
Though in words of one syllable, "The Book of One Syllable" is not meant for a child when first he learns to read; it is meant for him when he knows such words at sight. The tales are told in these small words, that a child need not have to stop to spell, but that he may be led on and on till he comes to the end.
May he feel when he does come to the end, that to read has not been a task.
LIST OF WHAT IS IN THE BOOK.
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