The Tempest,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and
The Merchant of Venice,
are the three Shakespearean plays that first interest children. Care should be taken in the selection of the edition, as none of the plays in their original form are suitable for children. School editions with notes are excellent. The Tempest is printed in Volume VIII of this set, and is deferred to that point on account of the very full notes and comments that accompany it. The play itself may be read quite early, and children should be encouraged to try their skill on Shakespeare as soon as they show signs of interest.
Undine, by Baron de la Motte Fouqué,
is a beautiful fairy tale from the German, with interest for older children than those who read Andersen and Grimm.
Plutarch’s Lives.
White’s Boys’ and Girls’ Plutarch is recommended. The lives of Brutus, Julius Cæsar, Themistocles, Pericles and Alexander are among the more interesting.
The Burning of Rome, by A. J. Church,
is a thrilling story of that event.
Cuore, by Edmondo De Amicis.
The journal of an Italian schoolboy. Useful and moral, but not always interesting to American boys.