THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON
Lead pupils to discuss their ideas of griffins before reading the story.
To what age of literature do griffin and dragon stories belong?
How could the Griffin know that the stone image was a good likeness of himself?
What things do you think the Griffin told the Minor Canon about minerals, metals, and the wonders of the world?
Stop at the point in the story just prior to the sending away of the Minor Canon, and let the children discuss what they would have done under those circumstances.
Do you agree with the Griffin in his opinion of the only two good things in the town?
What did the Griffin mean when he said, “If some things were different, other things would be otherwise”?
Thus we learn that goodness, bravery, and honesty, even in a griffin, demand for companionship, goodness, bravery, and honesty.
Ruskin says some very good things about dragons in the first few pages of “The Queen of the Air.”
How do the things we see every day affect our characters?
Some very interesting and profitable comparisons may be made between this story and Hawthorne’s story of the “Great Stone Face”; and since comparison is such a mind-strengthener, the teacher should never lose such an opportunity.
THE SCRIBNER SERIES
of SCHOOL READING
A uniform supplementary reading series, specially edited for use in elementary schools and carefully graded in accordance with results obtained from actual tests in the class room. The main purpose of this series is to introduce into the class room the best literature, particularly the writings of those contemporary American authors who naturally appeal to young people, and to bring this excellent literature within the reach of all schools by offering the books at a very moderate price. The volumes are profusely illustrated, and handsomely and durably bound.
Fanciful Tales. By Frank R. Stockton. Edited by Julia E. Langworthy. Illustrated.
Hans Brinker. By Mary Mapes Dodge. Illustrated.
A Child’s Garden of Verses. By Robert Louis Stevenson. Illustrated.
Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. By Howard Pyle. Illustrated by the author.
America First. By Frances Nimmo Greene. Illustrated.
The Hoosier School Boy. By Edward Eggleston. Illustrated.
Krag and Johnny Bear. Being the Personal Histories of Krag, Randy, Johnny Bear, and Chink. By Ernest Thompson Seton. Illustrated.
Lobo, Rag, and Vixen. Selections from “Wild Animals I Have Known.” By Ernest Thompson Seton. With 4 full-page and many other illustrations from drawings by the Author.
Hero Tales Told in School. By James Baldwin. Illustrated.
The Page Story Book. Selections for School Reading by Thomas Nelson Page. Edited by Frank E. Spalding and Catherine T. Bryce.
The van Dyke Book. Selections for School Reading. By Henry van Dyke. Edited by Professor Edwin Mims. A new edition, revised, with an introduction by Maxwell Struthers Burt. Illustrated.
The Howells Story Book. By William Dean Howells. Selected and arranged by Mary E. Burt. Illustrated by Miss Howells.
The Eugene Field Book. Verses, Stories, and Letters for School Reading. By Eugene Field. Edited by Mary E. Burt and Mary L. Cable. With an Introduction by George W. Cable. Illustrated.
The Lanier Book. Selections for School Reading. By Sidney Lanier. Edited and arranged by Mary E. Burt, in co-operation with Mrs. Lanier. Illustrated.
The Cable Story Book. Selections for School Reading. By George W. Cable. Edited by Mary E. Burt and Lucy L. Cable. Illustrated.
The Roosevelt Book. Selections from the writings of Theodore Roosevelt, with an introduction by Robert Bridges. Illustrated.
Things Will Take a Turn. By Beatrice Harraden. Illustrated.
Around the World in the Sloop Spray. By Captain Joshua Slocum. Illustrated.
Twelve Naval Captains. With portraits. By Molly Elliott Seawell.
Poems of American Patriotism. Chosen by Brander Matthews.
Children’s Stories of American Literature, 1660-1860. By Henrietta Christian Wright.
Children’s Stories of American Literature, 1860-1896. By Henrietta Christian Wright.
Children’s Stories in American History. By Henrietta Christian Wright.
Children’s Stories in American Progress. By Henrietta Christian Wright.
Herakles, the Hero of Thebes, and Other Heroes of the Myth. By Mary E. Burt and Zenaide Ragezin. Illustrated.
Odysseus: The Hero of Ithaca. By Mary E. Burt. Illustrated.
The Boy General. By Mrs. George A. Custer and Mary E. Burt. Illustrated.
Don Quixote De La Mancha. By Miguel de Cervantes. From the translations of Duffield and Shelton. By Mary E. Burt and Lucy Leffingwell Cable.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.