Part 13

We have our own children to consider; European States are sending us theirs. It is no small matter to decide what they should read. In the library, the juvenile member is to find a full and free development. Russian and Polish, French, German and Italian, Yiddish and English--all these must be satisfied. But there is one thing positive; however conglomerate the membership, a library for children must assume as a fundamental maxim that the best books alone will create the best taste.

We shall be obliged to come to it sooner or later,--a guillotine method--the wholesale eviction of all literature which is an outgrowth of this attempt to drag our classics down, in order to appeal condescendingly to youthful intellects, and to foreshorten our fiction so as to satisfy a trivial mood. Wisely, the librarian is moving by degrees; a sudden adoption of a rigorous standard would find an army of readers wholly unprepared; the ideal must be made to suit the needs of different environments. Whatever rules are formulated to hasten the improvement, they must be pliable and not fixed; for, though all localities may be improving, this betterment will be found to vary in degree with each section.

Having stacked the shelves, the next step is to appeal to the child through suggestion; to find out, as well as opportunity will permit, wherein his tastes lie, and what class of book dominates his card, as seen by the catalogue notation stamped upon it. The librarian must seek to divert any miscarriage of energy; to lead away from undesirable tendencies by gradual substitution of something a little higher in motive and much stronger in style. She must resort to exciting subterfuges: the bulletin accessory, the book-lists, the story hour--in fact, whatever her inventive mind can shape to awaken interest, to foster a desire for something above the average taste.

There are some who approve of closing the shelves to children, and in this way of directing the distribution of books to the individual. Not only is this impracticable, but it deprives a child of that personal contact with all kinds of books by means of which he is to learn his own inclination. We must infer that all books upon the juvenile shelves are placed there because they are thought suitable for children. The librarian may reserve that prerogative of concealing a book and regarding it out, should a demand for it come from one who should not, for any apparent reason, have it. But the jurisdiction of the librarian over the child-taste, just as the jurisdiction of the teacher over the child-mind, ends where the home is expected to proclaim its effectiveness and its right.

IV. THE EXPERIMENTAL TEMPTATION.

Many attempts have been made to treat statistically the reading tastes of children, but the results are significant only in a few details, and even these vary from locality to locality, as they differ from child to child. The psychology of sex becomes apparent by the manner in which boys and girls respond to the same stimulus. But we ought not to place much value upon a canvass of this kind, for the answers that are sent to any class of questions are more or less artificial, in many cases reflecting some grown person’s estimate of a book. It is important for the librarian to know the proportions in which fiction and non-fiction are circulated, and what books are in greatest demand. The temperature changes of taste need thus to be followed. But history deals with crucial moments.

Every one interested in the subject of juvenile reading has tried to experiment and has received quaint answers to stereotyped questions--answers filled with humour, now and then with a spontaneous exclamation of appreciation. In my own case, some four hundred letters were sent to me from children, North and South. They showed me local variations in reading tastes; they showed me educational weaknesses, such as a general mechanical study of a few hackneyed poems; they showed me an indiscriminate reading, by the fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl, of fiction such as Besant’s “Children of Gideon” and Mrs. Humphry Ward’s “Fenwick’s Career.” Furthermore, they pointed in some instances to individual tastes; and most of them indicated a dire confusion as to the meaning of the terms _fiction_ and _non-fiction_.

By such an experiment, however, one begins to realise how rich the field of juvenile energy is--a stream of voluntary desire seeking some course to the sea. From a multitude of such letters one may comprehend why the librarian insists on proceeding slowly in order to counteract deficiencies. The newsboy, without his five-cent weekly, still must have his penny-dreadful classic; the girl, too old for the juvenile book, must be furnished with a transitional book on the way to the grown-up shelves; our foreign children must be encouraged to read, according to the librarian’s idea, something different from themselves, something not of their own environment.[57]

We were warned by the writer in the _Quarterly Review_ not to regard the extremes of genius or of dulness, in estimating children. And yet, biography is filled with that appealing detail of juvenile taste, which the grown person delights in recording. Lamb’s remembrance of the Stackhouse Bible, Coleridge’s dreamy dread of the Arabian Nights, Scott’s lusty shouting of the ballad of Hardy Knute, Tennyson’s spreading his arms to the sky and chanting, “I hear a voice that’s speaking in the wind,” Stevenson’s crooning to himself in the dark his “songstries”[58]--these touches do not betoken the genius of men, but the genius of childhood. Whenever we find such young people brought in contact with children’s literature, they do not relish the experience; they recognise as of value only that which they can but partially comprehend, yet which is told out of the depths of a writer’s heart and understanding. They respond to the spirit of great literature from their earliest moments; for its sake, they overcome the sensitiveness of temperament which nowadays must be in so far reckoned with that all causes for fear are rejected from a story. To them, there is a certain educative value in fear. Coleridge, timourous as he was when not more than six, devoured the gilt-covered books of Jack-the-Giant-Killer and of Tom Hickathrift, whom Thackeray delighted in, not because he was so tall, but because he was so _thick_; and though it is said that his father burnt many of these nerve-exacting tales, we hear Coleridge exclaiming during the course of a lecture delivered in 1811:

“Give me the works which delighted my youth! Give me the History of St. George and the Seven Champions of Christendom, which at every leisure moment I used to hide myself in a corner to read! Give me the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, which I used to watch, till the sun shining on the book-case approached, and, glowing full upon it, gave me the courage to take it from the shelf.”[59]

We interpret these remarks in terms of genius, without giving the average mind credit for such opinions, just because they are left unrecorded. Every child has his night fears and his day dreams, however regulated they may be by his social environment. These vary in degree according to the intellectual energy and spiritual refinement fostered in each one of us. The librarian’s problem is based upon an acknowledgment of this potential energy and refinement; she reckons with the child’s voluntary interest. For all childhood is seeking to find expression in numberless ways; its eye for the first time sees the outline of life, its voice expresses for the first time the rhythm of its nature in song. Its compass in all things is small, but its timbre is pure.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] The general complaint among librarians is that these picture-books of the best type are too rare and too expensive to purchase in large quantities for general circulation.

[48] Read Stevenson’s “A Penny Plain” in Memories and Portraits; also “The Dime Novel in American Life,” by Charles M. Harvey, _Atlantic_, 100:37 (July, 1907).

[49] By Archdeacon Wilberforce, Hannah More’s friend.

[50] _Vide_ “Reading for Boys and Girls,” by Everett T. Tomlinson. _Atlantic_, 86:693 (Nov., 1900).

[51] Article on Children’s Books. Reprinted in _Living Age_, Aug. 10, 1844, 2:1.

[52] There was the Elliptical Questioning--a form of “drawing out” and “injecting” knowledge and information.

[53] In a letter to the author, Mr. C. G. Leland, Superintendent of the Bureau of Libraries, New York Board of Education, plainly states the province and the mission of the school library. He writes: “Nearly all of our educational institutions nowadays are very busily engaged in supplying _useful information_. The practical is crowding everything else out of their courses of study. The kind of knowledge that will help in the future struggle for existence and material betterment is being demanded more and more and is being taught to the exclusion of much that is only ethical or cultural.

“As a continual protest against this materialistic tendency the school library takes its position and marshals its books. Its first purpose is to create a love for good literature and beautiful pictures as soon as the child has mastered the mechanics of reading; its ultimate aim is culture.

“In the elementary school the library should reach to every class-room and offer there a few very attractive and very carefully selected books, so attractive and so well graded that the most indifferent boy or girl will be led by easy stages into the green fields of literature.

“The class-room is still the strategic point, for even homes of refinement are wont to delegate the work of directing the children’s reading to the school, and the teacher with her case of well-known books has every day opportunities denied to public librarian and to the majority of parents.

“The school library naturally points the way to the public library; its relation to that institution is that of the preparatory school to the university.

“In supplying reference-books, and in correlating a certain amount of recreative reading with the school course, the library has another important field, but one which should be subordinated to the larger and broader function.”

[54] This involves a careful consideration of a juvenile reference library.

[55] Heinrich Wolgast, the German authority, has written: “Vom Kinderbuch,” Leipzig, Teubner, 1906.

[56] _Vide_ London _Library Association Record_, Feb. 15, 1907.

[57] This last statement, however, may be refuted by the répertoire of a Yiddish theatre. I have witnessed the theme of “King Lear” applied to Jewish life, and followed with bated breath by the boy in the gallery.

[58] Stevenson’s father once stood outside the door and recorded one of these impromptu poems. The Rev. Charles Kingsley, when a boy, is said to have done the same thing.

[59] _Vide_ W. M. Rossetti’s Memoirs of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Chap. VI, Childish Book Reading and Scribbling.

VI. APPENDIX

I. BOOK-LISTS PUBLISHED BY LIBRARIES.

What principle of selection shall one adopt in making a book-list? No hard and fast rules can be framed, for what I may consider best may be rejected as second best by you. There is not a book-list issued that does not differ from the others in many essentials; in classification, in titles, and in purpose. Most of these lists are marked by a sincere effort on the part of librarians to direct a child’s reading along the best lines. But even though they may be suggestive and helpful, at the most they are passive and need to be supplemented by a personal knowledge of the books recommended. For, in the lists of history and biography, a compiler finds it necessary to adopt many volumes that are far from literary in the style of writing or in the manner of treatment. To-morrow these books may give place to others far superior and far more permanent in value.

The agreement between the lists, however, does show that there are numberless stories, legends, and the like, which are generally acceded to be desirable, as much because of their inherent freshness as because of the fact that they have stood the test of time. Rarely do the lists fail to mention them.

Notwithstanding, the recommendations issued by the libraries usually are sent forth, hedged around by exceptions and by indirect warnings. This is a healthful sign; it indicates that, however intent the maker of book-lists may be to offer the best, human nature is not all of the same calibre, and excellence is of an illusive character.

It is with some peculiar pleasure that I offer the list of books in this Appendix, protecting myself, and the committee that aided me, with excuses, and forestalling criticism by claiming that while the recommendations have been made to the best of several abilities, and in accord with no mean standards of selection--at the same time much has been included of necessity which will pass away in the years to come. This is not an exclusive list; the attempt has been made to have it a practical, workable list, for parents and teachers and librarians to consult, bringing to it their own personal judgment as to individual taste and development of the child under consideration. Such a term as “the child” has been used reluctantly, since there is no other term, more human, less mechanical, to take its place. Because of this dislike for a stereotyped grading of childhood, the reader will here find no indication as to age demands. The books have been mentioned with a generous range of from six to fifteen years.

Other lists will be found to include a fuller division of subjects. Notably in the historical sections, they will contain many more references than are here given. Our histories smack largely of the school-room; they do not differ so very much from each other as to excellence; they are very apt to agree in the zealousness with which they follow fact. If we decide to seek for general literary merit, we should avoid, as far as possible, the inclusion of what we know is not the case; of what we know is intended for the class-room.

And so, in order to supplement our method, which may be considered too narrow or too broad, the following table of available lists, which have been brought to my notice, is included:

BOOK-LISTS

A. L. A. ANNOTATED LISTS--Books for Boys and Girls. A Selected List Compiled by Caroline M. Hewins, Librarian of the Hartford Public Library. 1904. $0.15. A most judicious and literary standard.

A LIST OF BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR A CHILDREN’S LIBRARY--Compiled for the Iowa Library Commission by Annie Carroll Moore, Supervisor of Children’s Rooms in the New York City Public Library. Another excellent and practical guide.

BOOKS FOR BOYS--Special Bulletin No. 6. January, 1906. The Chicago Public Library. A generous selection for boys from twelve to eighteen; an inclusive list, marked more by vigour than by refinement of a fastidious nature.

FINGERPOSTS TO CHILDREN’S READING--Walter Taylor Field. McClurg, $1.00. The book contains some practical suggestions about children and their reading. The lists in the Appendix are open to criticism.

THE RIGHT READING FOR CHILDREN--Compiled by Charles Welsh. Heath. Referring chiefly to Heath’s Home and School Classics.

STORY TELLING TO CHILDREN FROM NORSE MYTHOLOGY AND THE NIBELUNGENLIED--References to Material on Selected Stories, Together with an Annotated Reading List. Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. $0.20. Excellent.

STORY HOUR COURSES FOR CHILDREN FROM GREEK MYTHS, THE ILIAD, AND THE ODYSSEY, as Conducted by the Children’s Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. $0.05. An excellent guide.

A LIST OF GOOD STORIES TO TELL TO CHILDREN UNDER TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, with a Brief Account of the Story Hour Conducted by the Children’s Department, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. $0.05. The same Library has issued:

ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF BOOKS USED IN THE HOME LIBRARIES AND READING CLUBS, conducted by the Children’s Department. $0.25.

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN--A List Compiled by Gertrude Wild Arnold. The Marion Press, New York. 1905.

READING FOR THE YOUNG--Sargent. Houghton.

A CHILDREN’S LIBRARY--Selected by May H. Prentice and Effie L. Power, in behalf of the Cleveland Normal School.

CATALOGUE OF BOOKS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN NEW YORK--Compiled by Claude G. Leland. Marked by educational requirements, and graded.

A LIST OF BOOKS ON BIRDS for the General Reader and Students. Audubon Society of the State of New York. Recommended by Mr. Frank M. Chapman, of the New York Museum of Natural History. _Vide_ “Bird-Lore,” a magazine which Mr. Chapman edits.

CHILDREN’S REFERENCE LISTS--Cleveland Public Library. English History for the Sixth Grade. The system here adopted is excellent, and might be followed with advantage in other lines.

CHILDREN, SCHOOLS, AND LIBRARIES--A list, with abstracts, of some of the more important contributions to the subject. Compiled by Marion Dickinson in 1897; revised by Mary Medlicott in 1899. Springfield Public Library. Springfield, Massachusetts. A very serviceable pamphlet.

FIVE HUNDRED BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG--George E. Hardy. Scribner.

SOME ENGLISH CATALOGUES recommended by Miss Isabel Chadburn:

_a._ Catalogue of Books for Secondary Schools.

_b._ Prize List, Education Committee, London County Council. Graded.

_c._ Buckingham Palace Road Library. Mr. Pacy.

_d._ Cable Street, Stepney, E., Library. Mr. Roebuck.

_e._ Descriptive Handbook to Juvenile Literature. Finsbury Public Libraries, Mr. Cannons.

_f._ Group of Books for Schools. Librarian of the Cardiff Library. Mr. Ballinger.

As far as nature books are concerned, it will be found that local differences have to be observed; yet, though the British and American writers are bound to these limitations, they are none the less alike in their scope--to furnish the juvenile readers with a ready reference guide to objects around them. In the present instance, the list which has been compiled, voted upon, and arranged, may suit the English child as well as the American child, although certain local inclusions need to be balanced by the substitution of English counterparts. The American school story, _per se_, will never supplant its English predecessor in “Tom Brown at Rugby,” or even “The Crofton Boys.” The American library shelves are stacked with the English make of book. And it must be acknowledged that, in point of scholarship, the English classics, given a library and literary _format_, surpass the school-book shape in every way. In this connection, it is well to heed the warning of Miss Moore:

“The choice of editions is not based upon extended comparative work. [What is said of her list applies as well to the present one.] It represents merely the editions which have come to my notice, some of them being quite unsatisfactory. This is an era of educational publications and, while many of these are admirably adapted to their purpose, we have need to be constantly on our guard not to overstock children’s libraries with books which have no artistic merit as to cover or general make-up, and which therefore fail to make a definite individual impression on the mind of the child and give to a children’s library the general appearance of book-shelves devoted to supplementary reading.”

Were this intended to be an exclusive list, many very rigourous omissions would have been the result; but it is better to err upon the generous side than to appeal to an exceptional taste. “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp” is the Browning philosophy, but in the climb upward the intermediate tendrils are necessary for holding on; nor must they be removed until something is assured to take their place. The removal of inferior books from the shelves will not remedy the matter, unless existing circumstances are such as to meet the case.

Where it is possible, the least expensive edition has been adopted; although it is often a fact that no choice has been given. A good edition for a library is the most desirable, and those committees are unwise which sacrifice quality for quantity. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that a more suitable arrangement cannot exist, whereby the artistic books, which, by reason of their decorative character, are perforce expensive, could be offered at less exorbitant rates to an institution of such social importance as a library.

II. A LIST OF SELECTED BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.

PICTURE-BOOKS AND PICTURES

(The NISTER PICTURE-BOOKS are sold in this country by DUTTON.)

BEDFORD, FRANCES D.--Book of Shops. (Verses by E. V. Lucas.) Dutton, $2.50.

BRADLEY, WILL--Peter Poodle, Toy Maker to the King. Dodd, $1.50 net.

CALDECOTT, RANDOLPH--Toy Books. Warne, (4 vols.) $1.25 each. The separate stories are sold at $0.25 each, and comprise, among a large number, the following: The Farmer’s Boy; A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go; Hey Diddle Diddle and Baby Bunting; The House That Jack Built; The Milk Maid; The Queen of Hearts; Ride a Cock Horse; Sing a Song of Sixpence; John Gilpin.

COX, PALMER--The Brownie Books. Century, $1.50 each.

CRANE, WALTER--Mother Hubbard’s Picture Book. Lane, $1.25.

This Little Pig’s Picture Book. Lane, $1.25. [There are other volumes. Crane also ill. Lamb’s fanciful essay, “The Masque of Days.” Cassell, $2.50.]

Mother Hubbard; This Little Pig; Aladdin; Beauty and the Beast; Bluebeard; The Forty Thieves; The Frog Prince; Goody Two Shoes; Sleeping Beauty; The Fairy Ship; Baby’s A B C. Lane, $0.25 each.

DE MONVEL, BOUTET--Filles et Garçons. (Stories by Anatole France.) Hachette; Brentano, $2.35.

Chansons de France pour les petits Français. Hachette; Plon, $2.50.

La Civilité puérile et honnête. Plon; Brentano, $2.35.

Nos Enfants. (Text by Anatole France.) Hachette; Brentano, $1.25.

Fables de La Fontaine, choisies pour les enfants. S. P. C. K.; Brentano, $2.35.

GERSON, VIRGINIA--Happy Heart Family. Duffield, $1.00. (There is a second volume.)

GREENAWAY, KATE--A Day in a Child’s Life. (Music, verse, pictures.) Warne, $1.50.

Marigold Garden. Routledge (Warne, $1.50), $2.00.

Under the Window. (Pictures and Rhymes.) Warne, $1.50.

A Apple Pie, etc. Warne, $0.75.

Mother Goose. Warne, $0.75.

Mavor’s Spelling Book. Warne, $0.40.

GUIGOU, P. ET VIMAR, A.--L’illustre Dompteur. (The French Circus Book.) Plon; Brentano, $2.35.

HOFFMANN, HEINRICH--Slovenly Peter. Coates, $1.50. [German editions are preferable.]

PERKINS, LUCY FITCH--Adventures of Robin Hood. Stokes, $1.50.

WHITCOMB, IDA P.--Young People’s Story of Art. Dodd, $2.00. [Sarah Tytler is the author of “The Old Masters and their Pictures”; “Modern Painters and Their Paintings.” Little, Brown, $1.50 each. _Vide_ Poetry; also German section, Richter, etc. The French are here included since they are so familiar to English readers.]

MYTHS, FOLK-LORE, LEGENDS, FAIRY TALES, AND HERO TALES

ÆSOP--Fables. (Tr., Joseph Jacobs.) Macmillan, $1.50.

A Hundred Fables of Æsop. (Tr., Sir Roger L’Estrange; intro., Kenneth Grahame.) Lane, $1.50 net.

The Babies’ Own. (Ill., Walter Crane.) Warne, $1.50.

ANDERSEN, H. C.--Fairy Tales. (Tr., H. L. Braekstad; ill., Tegner; 2 vols.) Century, $5.00. Fairy Tales. (Tr., Mrs. Edgar Lucas.) Macmillan, $0.50; Dent, $2.50. [Ill., the Robinsons. _Vide_ also Contes Choisis, Bibliothèque Rose.]

ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS--(Ed., Andrew Lang.) Longmans, $2.00.

Fairy Tales From. (Ed., E. Dixon.) Dent, 2 vols., 7s. 6d. net each.

ASBJÖRNSEN, P. C.--Fairy Tales From the Far North. Armstrong, $2.00; Burt, $1.00. [Folk and Fairy Tales. Tr., H. L. Braekstad; intro., E. W. Gosse.]

BALDWIN, JAMES--The Story of Siegfried. (Ill., Pyle.) Scribner, $1.50.

The Story of Roland. (Ill., Birch.) Scribner, $1.50.

BROWN, ABBIE FARWELL--The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. Houghton, $1.25.

In the Days of Giants. Houghton, $1.10 net.

BULFINCH, THOMAS--The Age of Fable. Lothrop, Lee, $1.50. [Cheaper editions, Altemus, Crowell, etc.]

CANTOR, WILLIAM--True Annals of Fairyland. Reign of King Herla. (Ill., Charles Robinson.) Dent, 4s. 6d. net.

CARROLL, LEWIS--Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. (Ill., Sir John Tenniel.) Macmillan, $1.00. [There is also an edition, Harper, ill., by Peter Newell, $3.00 net. The reader is advised to consult Mr. Dodgson’s Life and Letters.]

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. (Ill., Sir John Tenniel. Sequel to the above.) Macmillan, $1.00.

CHAPIN, A. A.--Story of the Rhinegold. Harper, $1.25. [_Vide_ also “Wonder Tales from Wagner.” She is the author of “Masters of Music.” Dodd, $1.50.]

CHURCH, A. J.--Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France. Macmillan, $1.75.

CRUIKSHANK, GEORGE--The Cruikshank Fairy Book. Putnam, $1.25; $2.00.

FRANCILLON, R. E.--Gods and Heroes. Ginn, $0.40.

GIBBON, J. M. (ED.)--True Annals of Fairyland. Reign of King Cole. (Ill., Charles Robinson.) Macmillan, $2.00.