The cordial reception awarded to the best class of American books in England, is indicated by the following notices from the Oldham Evening & Weekly Chronicle of October 4:
"FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW. By Margaret Sidney. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. This gorgeously got up and profusely and beautifully illustrated volume is one of engrossing interest. All the characters are skilfully drawn, the events are interestingly marshalled, and the plot most naturally developed. For humour and pathos, for sympathy yet fidelity, for loftiness of tone yet simplicity of style, this charming volume has few superiors. Here and there it reminds us of Mark Twain, anon of Dickens, and often of George Eliot, for the authoress has many of the strong points of all these writers. Such wholesome and bracing literature as this may well find its place in all our homes. It is a tale of a high order, and is a real study of life. It is fresh, breezy, bracing. It is strengthening and enthralling."
"CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. By Rev. Alexander McKenzie. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. This neatly and strongly got up volume consists of sixteen fresh, vigorous, chatty, colloquial sermons. The author has the solidity of the Scotch teacher, and the polish and beauty of the English preacher combined with the freedom, the raciness, interest, and the freshness of the American pulpit orator. These discourses are orations which were delivered extemporaneously and taken down by a shorthand writer. Hence they are homely, yet eloquent; natural, yet cultivated, and come right home to the hearts of the readers. No one could tire reading these sermons. They are as racy as a magazine article, as instructive as a lecture, and as impressive and lofty as a message from God. They are thoroughly American for their fearlessness, their living energy, and their originality. Sermons of this high order are sure to be in demand."
GOOD READING.
A glance at the way reading is generally taught in our schools will convince any impartial observer that this subject is made the driest and dreariest of all studies. In our graded schools, children generally read, on an average, an hour a day during the eight or nine years' course, at the rate of less than one book a year. The average child easily learns by heart in a few weeks all there is in the first three books, after that the constant repetitions are in the highest degree monotonous. There is nothing to attract his attention or stimulate his love for reading. The selections filling fourth, fifth and sixth readers are too often far above the mental grasp of the pupil, and are also of so fragmentary a nature as to be almost unintelligible to the average student. Word pronouncing, and that alone, is the only refuge of the teacher.
There can be no excuse on account of the cost, for the money now thrown away, and worse than thrown away, upon useless spelling books and mind-stupefying grammars, would purchase a rich supply of the best reading matter the English language affords for every school in the land.
I have tried this experiment, and to my mind it is no longer an experiment. I have seen the children of the poorest and most ignorant parents taking from the library works upon history, travels, biography, and the very best fiction, exhibiting in their selection excellent taste, and showing from their manner how much they love such books. They would no more choose bad reading than they would choose bad food when wholesome is provided for them. Shameful neglect, I repeat, and not innate depravity, drives our children into by-ways and forbidden paths. Let no one preach long sermons on the depraved tendencies of the young until he has tried this simple, cheap, and practical way of avoiding an unnecessary evil.—F.W. Parker.
The Golden Text Calendar, arranged by A.C. Morrow, editor of The Illustrator of the International Sunday-school lessons, with designs by Mary A. Lathbury, is specially adapted as a holiday gift. Beautifully lithographed and printed in nine colors. It contains the Golden Text for every Sunday, and more than fifteen hundred quotations from the best authors. The background of the calendar is of sprays of apple blossoms. To the right of the pad the passing of time is represented by the flight of birds and an angel bearing an hour-glass. To the left, a young girl, with light flowing hair, stands beneath the branches of a tree, gathering pink and yellow hollyhocks. The design is worthy of the artist, and the literary selections reflect credit upon the editor. Price, $1.00.
BABYLAND. The Boston Daily Globe says: "One need not concern herself about the 'Chatterbox,' or any of the annuals made up in England for American youth, when there are better books, in adaptability of matter to age, in engravings, paper and press-work, close by her at home. The mother may find a number of annuals published in this country which will suit her taste and purpose much better, and she ought always to give them the preference. BABYLAND for 1884 is in all respects a desirable publication for the youngest readers. Its songs and stories, its speaking pictures and its general attractiveness always win the smiles of little folks."
An interesting and suggestive little treatise on the "Care and Feeding of Infants," has been published by Doliber, Goodale & Co., Boston, who will send a specimen copy free to any address.