A very interesting book on this subject is entitled "Libraries and Schools. Papers selected by Samuel S. Green. New York (F. Leypoldt), 1883." It contains the following subjects: "The Public Library and the Public Schools;" "The Relation of the Public Library to the Public Schools"; "Libraries as Educational Institutions"; "The Public Library as an Auxiliary to the Public Schools"; "The Relation of Libraries to the School System"; and "A Plan of Systematic Training in Reading at School."
"Books for the Young, a Guide for Parents and Children. Compiled by C. M. Hewins. New York (F. Leypoldt), 1882," is an extremely useful little book. It contains a valuable list of books arranged in classes. Certain marks are used to indicate the character of the books, thus the letter (c) indicates that the book is especially suitable for children under ten, (b) that it is especially suitable for boys, and (g) that it is especially suitable for girls.
Prefixed are eight sensible rules as to how to teach the right use of books.
Perkins's "Best Reading" contains a good list of books for children (pp. 299-303).
The children's books of the present day are so beautifully produced that the elders are naturally induced to exclaim, "We never had such books as these," but probably we enjoyed our books as well as our children do theirs. What a thrill of pleasure the middle-aged man feels when a book which amused his childhood comes in his way: this, however, is seldom, for time has laid his decaying hand upon them—
"All, all are gone, the old familiar faces."
The children for whom Miss Kate Greenaway and Mr. Caldecott draw and Mrs. Gatty and Mrs. Ewing wrote are indeed fortunate, but we must not forget that Charles and Mary Lamb wrote delightful books for the young, that Miss Edgeworth's stories are ever fresh, and that one of the most charming children's stories ever written is Mrs. Sherwood's Little Woodman.
A short list of a Child's Library is quoted in the Library Journal (vol. viii. p. 57) from the Woman's Journal. The family for whom it was chosen consisted of children from three to twelve, the two eldest being girls. The books are mostly American, and but little known in this country—
Snow-bound. Illustrated. Whittier.
Life of Longfellow. Kennedy.
A Summer in the Azores. Baker.
Among the Isles of Shoals. Celia Thaxter.
The boys of '76. Coffin.
The boys of '61. Coffin.
Story of our Country. Higginson.
Sir Walter Raleigh. Towle.
Child's History of England. Dickens.
Tales from Shakespear. Lamb.
Tales from Homer. Church.
The Wonder-book. Illustrated. Hawthorne.
Young folks' book of poetry. Campbell.
Poetry for childhood. Eliot.
Bits of talk about home matters. H.H.
The Seven Little Sisters. Andrews.
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates. Dodge.
Room for one more. Mary T. Higginson.
King Arthur for boys. Lanier.
Doings of the Bodley family. Scudder.
Mother-play and Nursery-rhymes.
Children's Robinson Crusoe.
The four-footed lovers.
Mammy Tittleback and her family. H.H.
The Little Prudy books. Six volumes.
The editor of the Library Journal remarks on the list, "Guest's Lectures on English History is better than Dickens's, and the 'Prudy' children are so mischievous, so full of young Americanisms, and so far from being 'wells of English undefiled,' that they are not always good companions for boys and girls. I have known a child's English spoiled by reading the Prudy books."