Public-domain ebook
by Curry, Charles Madison; Clippinger, Erle Elsworth
Language: en12,313 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Children's Literature·Children & Young Adult Reading·Essays, Letters & Speeches
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #25545.
The book is a teacher‑oriented handbook that gathers a wide range of children’s literature, folk tales, rhymes, myths, and more recent stories, into a single, compact volume. Its opening sections list dozens of sources, from specific pedagogical guides on teaching English to broader inspirational essays on literary taste, and then moves into annotated selections of stories, Bible narratives, and interpretations of childhood. The preface explains that the editors assembled this material to give novice teachers a “minimum basic course” in children’s literature, offering notes, bibliographic references, and practical suggestions for presenting the texts in the classroom. By providing reliable folk versions and pointing out where teachers might need to discuss dialect, terror, or ethical appeal, the work aims to be a first‑aid resource rather than an exhaustive scholarly treatise.
Written in a measured, early‑twentieth‑century academic voice, the text combines straightforward exposition with occasional editorial commentary. Its style is formal but accessible, reflecting the era’s emphasis on systematic pedagogy and moral instruction. The book will appeal to teacher‑training students, elementary educators, and scholars of the history of children’s literature who seek a curated overview of classic and traditional material, as well as practical guidance for classroom use.
The opening · free to read
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When all the novelists and spinners of elaborate fictions have been read and judged, we shall find that the peasant and the nurse are still unsurpassed as mere narrators. They are the guardians of that treasury of legend which comes to us from the very childhood of nations; they and their tales are the abstract and brief chronicles, not of an age merely, but of the whole race of man. It is theirs to keep alive the great art of telling stories as a thing wholly apart from and independent of the art of writing stories, and to pass on their art to children and to children's children. They abide in a realm of their own, in blessed isolation from that world of professional authors and their milk-and-water books "for children." --C. B. TINKER, "In Praise of Nursery Lore," The Unpopular Review, October-December, 1916.
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