591728 COPYRIGHT 1920, BY SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY For permission to print or adapt copyrighted material grateful acknowledgment is made to The Youth's Companion for "The Wake-Up Story" by Eudora Bumstead, and for "Little Bird Blue"; to Emeline Goodrow for "What Lights the Stars?" from Playtime and Rest; to Charles Scribner's Sons for poems by Robert Louis Stevenson; to Moffat, Yard and Company for "The Golden Cobwebs," from Christmas by Robert Haven Schauffler; to Milton Bradley Company for "The First Umbrella," from "How We First Came to Have Umbrellas" in For the Children's Hour, and for "The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings," from Tell Me Another Story, both by Carolyn S. Bailey; to Good Housekeeping for "The Dolls' Thanksgiving Dinner," from "Who Ate the Dollies' Dinner?" by Isabel Gordon Curtis; to G. P. Putnam's Sons for "The Lad Who Went to the North Wind" by George Webbe Dasent; to Elizabeth Brown for "The Easter Rabbit," from Woods and Fields; to D. C. Heath and Company for "The Little Cook," from Old Time Stories of the Old North State by Lutie Andrews McCorkle; to The Outlook for "Clovers" by Helena Leeming Jeliffe, and for "The Foolish Goose" by Leora Robinson; to Houghton Mifflin Company for "The Daisies" by Frank Dempster Sherman; and to The Educational Publishing Company for "The Kind Old Oak," from Little Flower Folks. 266.27 PREFACE Book Two of the Elson Readers, like the Primer and Book One, presents stories and poems of compelling interest-chosen from the best to be found in child-literature. The book is distinctive for the many selections that impress a wholesome influence of high ethical ideals, particularly the ideal of service. There are stories not only from the past, fables and folk tales, but also present-day stories, rich in ideals of home and country, coöperation, and helpfulness to others— ideals to which the World War gave new meaning that the school reader should perpetuate. There are stories and poems of the flag, of Washington and Lincoln, and of the Junior Red Cross, as well as selections appropriate for festival and patriotic occasions-Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Arbor and Bird Day, and Flag Day. In the preparation of this book the authors have given particular attention to simplicity of treatment, not only in vocabulary and sentence structure but also in the story-element-the plot. A glance at the Word List will show the excellent distribution of the words of the text, page by page. A feature of the book is the large amount of reading material that it contains. Note, also, that several of the stories are presented in dramatized form, while many others lend themselves admirably to this treatment-thus offering project material of an excellent type. The many action stories adapt this book to the purposes of silent reading, a project of another important kind. The illustrations, which are for the most part the work of L. Kate Deal, are not mere decorations, but have been so drawn as to present in visual form the unfolding of the narrative. |