What Our Children Should Read.

Manawatu Herald, 9 April 1898, Page 2

What Our Children Should Read.

THE QUEEN.

They should certainly read as a matter of education many of Sic Walter Scott's novels, also many of Dickens's, and 3ome of Thackeray's, Before attempting these authors Hans Christian Alidersen, Mm Ewing, and Lewis Carroll should have been their portion, nor should their shelves be destitute of any volumes that can be obtained of " Aunt Judy's Magazine," a periodical which used to be the delight of every child. The death of " Aunt Judy " was ao indirect sign of deter* ioration in the demand for nursery literature. Bobert Louis Btevenaon it will very likely be averred, will never go out of fashion, but, alas I there are already signs that -among children his vogue has diminished. Yet his was literature, which his copyists' and followers' will never be. Misa Austin should be recommended to girls more often than she Is. She presents them with a picture of her times which is as valuable as several pages of history. The list, if completed, would be a very long one, hot enough has been said to suggeet a course of reading which every mother should induce her child to take up. Indirectly there is a liberal education in the choicest literature for the young. A child's critical faculties will lie dormant if they are not en* couraged. On the other band, should his taste be developed for that which is good early in life, he will instinctively choose as he goes along the best of everything. There if a tendency in these daya of cheap printing to multiply children's books too much ; that which is new has always a special zest of its own, and, therefore, the old books get pushed aside. But the number of penny and halfpenny papers that now come out are more to blame for the neglect of good authors than any other influence working against them. Of course, there is a great deal of information lin th*»e paper?, and, thanks io the high ton'? preserved in most of them, they c:inro k do onr children harm, but th«y are nob elevating, and they certainly should nit he allowed to take tho place of that whioh is.