THE YOUNG AND FIELD LITERARY READERS Book Four BY ELLA FLAGG YOUNG AND WALTER TAYLOR FIELD Author of "Fingerposts to Children's Reading," "Rome," Etc. TO THOSE WHO READ THIS BOOK Here is a fourth-year reader which we think you will find interesting and not too hard. In the readers which you have finished you have learned how to read. Now we are going to give you a storybook. The stories will be easy for you, and we shall help you in several ways. Before reading a story or poem we shall have a little talk about it. We shall find out who wrote it and learn some of the interesting things about the author. You always like to hear your father tell about what he did when he was a little boy, or your mother tell what happened when she was a little girl. We are going to tell you what some of these famous authors did when they were children about your age. You will be glad to get acquainted with them and will learn to love them. You will no longer think of them simply as names, but as real people who, when they were young, played and romped and studied and enjoyed a holiday just as much as you do. You will come to feel that they are friends who are always ready to tell you a story whenever you open the book. At the end of each story we have asked you a number of questions about it. These questions will make you think. They will show you some things in the story that you may not have seen when you read it first. Try to answer all the questions. When you have answered them, read the story over again and see if it does n't mean a great deal more to you. After the questions, we have told you about a few other stories or poems by the same author, easy enough for you to read. If you read these you will come to know the author better. We have also told you where you can find stories and poems by other authors about the same things. If you are interested in stories of farm life, for instance, after reading Mr. Trowbridge's poem, "Evening on the Farm," you will find the names of several good farm stories which will be interesting to you. As you can now read very well, you will want to read some good storybooks outside of school hours. The very best thing that you can do will be to draw from the library some of these books and read them "between times." We have given you after each story or poem a little dictionary which has in it all the words that can give you any trouble. This will tell you how to pronounce the words and what they mean. Study this and be sure you know exactly how to use each word. You will find here a number of poems to learn by heart. Don't forget this. Many of the poems which you learn now you will remember as long as you live. They will always be yours, and you will enjoy them more and more as you grow older, because they are just as good for grown people as they are for children. You will also find two plays, on pages 15 and 283, which you will like to learn and act. We wish you many happy hours with this book and are glad to think that we have been able to introduce you to some of the great and noble writers whom you will always love. |