Children and Their Books | Page 6

reading and writing to wise and good purposes." It is not
easy to interest in real literature a child whose father reads nothing but
newspapers and whose mother derives her intellectual inspiration from
novels, but such a child at least lives in a home where there are books,
though of an inferior kind, and there is warmth and good lights and
leisure to read in quiet and comfort. How different is the case of the
poor child, who comes from a tenement where a large family
congregate in one room, where the wash is drying, where younger
children are playing, there is little light, and no books of any kind. It is
with the occupants of such homes that the children's librarian does the

most wonderful work. To see a ragged, barefooted child come into a
palatial public library, knowing that he has a right to be there and going
directly to the shelf choose a book and sit down quietly to enjoy it gives
hope for the future of our country. Consider the influence of such a
child in his home; he not only interests his brothers and sisters in good
books, but also his father and mother. One such child asked a librarian
"Will you please start my father on some new fairy tales, he has read all
the others." According to the New York Public Library "Reading room
books have done more to secure clean hands and orderly ways from
persistently dirty and disorderly children than any remedy hitherto
tried." There should be enough copies of suitable books and they
should be kept on low shelves where the children can have direct
access to them. When we spend millions teaching children to read, we
should be willing to go to some expense in order to provide them with
what is worth reading. It is impossible for those who have not studied
the subject to realize the quantity of inane trash with which many
children stultify their minds. They read so much that their thought is
confused and they cannot even remember the names of the books
whose pages are passing before their eyes. The market is flooded with
books ranging from the trivial to the harmful which, unless he is
properly directed, will divert the child from the real books which he
should read and read again. "Ninety children out of one hundred in the
public schools below the high school," says Caroline M. Hewins, "read
nothing for pleasure beyond stories written in a simple style with no
involved sentences. Nine out of the other ten enjoy novels and
sometimes poetry and history written for older readers, and can be
taught to appreciate other books, but not more than one in a hundred,
has a natural love of the best literature and desires without urging to
read the great books of the world," and she adds "Stories of the present
day in which children die, are cruelly treated, or offer advice to their
elders, are not good reading for boys and girls in happy homes."
To form an impression on the white page of the child's mind is a great
privilege as well as a grave responsibility. He who makes sin attractive
in a child's book or dims the clear-cut distinction between right and
wrong will never be able to measure the far-reaching consequences of
his work. The child's reading should be constructive rather than

destructive. He should learn what to imitate rather than what to avoid,
but it is preferable that he should get necessary knowledge of the evil
side of human nature from a classic like Oliver Twist than from his
own experience or from cheap thrillers. The boy needs to be kept from
the vulgar cut-throat story, the girl from the unwholesome romance.
Girls should read books that exalt the sweet home virtues. Cheap
society stories are not necessarily immoral but they give false ideas of
life, warp the mind and encourage selfishness.
The normal boy reads the easiest and most exciting thing that comes to
hand, he devours detailed accounts of baseball and football matches
and is familiar with the record of every player. The books he reads deal
with deeds rather than descriptions. He likes a story that he can act out
with not too many characters and with one central figure, he identifies
himself with the hero and undergoes in imagination his dangers and
triumphs, he likes play with a purpose to it, he is always trying to make
something, to accomplish something; he feels unconsciously that he is
part of the organic whole of the universe and has work to do. The
charm of books like Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson
consists in the fact they personify and epitomize the perpetual struggle
of mankind with the forces of nature. The