Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHILDREN'S READING A GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS BY LEWIS M. TERMAN, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF THE MEASUREMENT OF INTELLIGENCE, THE INTELLIGENCE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, GENETIC STUDIES OF GENIUS, ETC. AND MARGARET LIMA, M. A. FORMERLY RESEARCH ASSISTANT IN THE STUDY OF GIFTED CHILDREN IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY SECOND EDITION ILLUSTRATED D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1931 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The supervision of children's reading is generally a per plexing problem for parents and teachers. The difficulty is due in part to lack of acquaintance with suitable books in various lines and in part to the fact that it is no easy matter for adults to gauge adequately the reading interests of children. A book that will appeal strongly to one child will have no interest for another, and many a well-meant attempt on the part of an adult to guide a child's reading has failed for lack of knowledge of individual differences and of the wide range of children's interests. In Germany, some years ago, a systematic attempt was made to censor children's books. Seventy-eight children's literature committees were created, resident in twenty-eight different states. Each committee passed on the books that were written for children, and if the consensus of opinion was in favor of a book, it was recommended; otherwise, it was banned. The system was typically German in its efficient organization, but it failed in its purpose, which was to choose the books that would be both instructive and entertaining. It was found that the young readers did not always agree with the opinion of the committees. They liked many of thebooks that were banned and refused to become interested in many that were approved. The weak point in the German system was that the natural reading interests of children were not given sufficient weight. The selections were made from an arbitrary adult point of view; the books chosen were good for children but were not always interesting to them. Boys and girls have as pronounced interests regarding what they shall read as regarding what they shall do. Without experimental study these interests are likely to remain a sealed book even to the most intelligent V vi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION adult. There is a wall around the town of Boyville, wrote William Allen White, 1 which is impenetrable when its gates have once shut upon youth. An adult may peer over the wall and try to ape the games inside, but finds it all a mockery and himself banished among the purblind grown-ups. The town of Boyvilie was old when Nineveh was a hamlet; it is ruled by ancient laws, has its own rulers and idols, and only the dim, unreal noises of the adult world about it have changed. But the wall of children's reading interests is not wholly impenetrable; numerous careful studies have been made which justify certain very definite conclusions. For many years now the problem of children's reading has been the subject of wide spread experimentation. Publishers have experimented with different types of juveniles, trying to meet the varying demands of schools and booksellers; schools have experimented with supplementary reading lists, and psychologists with statistical studies of reading preferences. As a result, im portant changes are taking place in the type of literature demanded for children. This book is basedon an experimental study of the qualita tive and quantitative aspects of children's reading, with special reference to individual differences caused by age, sex, intelli gence and special interests. Approximately two thousand children were studied. Data were obtained from three sources, namely, the home, the school, and the children themselves. 2 The results from all these sources were statistically treated, and largely on the basis of the findings, which are reviewed in Part I of this book, an extensive list of books suitable for children was drawn up. This list,