A worn, beloved book from my mother's teaching years in country and small town North Dakota schools during the 1930s and 1940s: as a child growing up on a farm, I delighted in the stories and poems that took me far away from my daily life. Today, I delight in fond memories as I carefully handle my mother's tattered copy (with missing portions of pages), another copy in somewhat better condition, and the facsimile copy printed by Scholar Select. (Yes, I have three copies and would eagerly obtain another in good or very good condition. The facsimile copy is placed on a shelf where children can reach it; the others, too fragile for heavy use, are placed on a "with adult supervision only" place of honor.)

Modern readers may find the lack of illustrations off-putting and the selections dated. However, I love to envision a schoolmarm standing in the front of a wood-burning stove in a one-room school house, parents cuddling and reading to children reading while the imaginations race along with the stories, or children happily acting out the stories.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone researching or collecting works written for earlier generations of children as it contains substantial references, introductions, notes, recommendations, and courses of study.