Floyd's Flowers Or Duty and Beauty For Colored Children Being One Hundred Short Stories Gleaned from the Storehouse of Human Knowledge and Experience Simple Amusing Elevating — The Best Books for Children
And, having relieved her mind of its burden, little Annie, with perfect delight and joyous innocence, ran hastily up the stairs to the nursery in search of Bessie.
LVI. THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.
According to some of the most thoughtful people who have lived in this world, a good way to deal with children in regard to the books that they are to read is to give them the freedom of a library which contains a few thousand of the best books in the world, and let them browse at will.
This was originally, I think, Charles Lamb’s idea.
Charles Lamb was a lovable man who wrote readable books for children.
But this statement of Lamb implies, of course, the possession of a good library.
Unfortunately many of my readers will not be found among those who live in homes which are well-stocked with books.
That is one reason why it seems wise to make one or two suggestions as to the best books for children to read.
If you cannot have all of the best books in the world, it is important that you should have at least a few of the best books in the world; and I shall name a few which I believe every boy and girl in America ought to know something about.
[Illustration: THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.
] For children between the ages of six and twelve, I should put at the head of my list Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” a good edition of the “Arabian Nights,” and Hans Andersen’s fairy tales.
In addition to these I would get Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book,” Andrew Lang’s “Fairy Book” and some book full of absurd fun like Lear’s “Nonsense Book” or “Alice in Wonderland.
” We must not forget Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus,” for it ought to have a place in every collection of children’s best books.
Kipling’s “Jungle Book” is good, and so is Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.
” “Tom Brown at Rugby,” Lamb’s Shakespeare Tales, and Ruskin’s “King of the Golden River” must not be overlooked.
John Burrough’s “Birds and Beasts” might as well end the list, since I haven’t room to give all the best books for children.
But whatever else you do, boys and girls, if you wish to widen your spiritual horizons, do not close the windows on the emotional and imaginative side by neglecting poetry.
Somebody has said that “There is in every one of us a poet whom the man has outlived.
” “Verse and Prose for Beginners” by Horace E. Scudder is a delightful book to have, and another book of poems called the “Children’s Garland.
” The best books for a child are the books that widen his world.
A man or woman in middle life or old age who loves poetry and great pictures and statues, who is familiar with Shakespeare, who has a sense of humor and a love of nature, knows a deal about the joy of living and is full of resources.
No one can ever have these resources and that joy who has not had them from early childhood.
