OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri NO CHILD'S CHRISTMAS is complete without the gift of a book, two books are better than one, and more are better still. Invariably little children look first for the...
...Invariably little children look first for the pictures...
...He will fill it in richly...
...A book is the greatest comforter imaginable...
...The important point is that he reads...
...Two I liked very much for the youngest children are Favorite Nursery Stories and Bedtime Stories, both illustrated, both costing 50 cents...
...They do not always show it which makes it all the worse...
...For Little Children There is none of us who cannot scrape up 50 cents for a lovely picture book for an eager child waiting for Christmas morning...
...The pictures can be stretched out into long strips so you can see a whole street, a big bit of the zoo, a farm picture that is just wonderful...
...You couldn't want better books...
...The pictures should be clear so that their story is plain...
...The older children must have story books...
...Look them up in the bookshops...
...That means that their books must be as full of pictures as they can hold...
...They need masses of form and color, good strong color at that...
...Do try to give each child a book that he wants to read, not the one you wish he wanted to read...
...Make sure of the old favorites: Tom Sawyer, Captains Courageous, Little Lame Prince, Treasure Island— mark that one with a star...
...They're very good...
...You can do something to comfort a child who tells his troubles but there is not much anybody can do when the trouble is hidden...
...See that every child has a dictionary and learns to use it...
...The Pull-Out Picture Book is good...
...Fine lines are not easy for little ones to see...
...The girls like those books as much as the boys do but give the girls their own particular treasures: Little Women, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Anne of Green Gables...
...The pictures should not try to say too much...
...A giant and a small boy, a boy and a dog, a little girl and a kitten, a boat, water, a child,—just enough to suggest to the imagination of the child a story behind the picture...
...There are now on the market books made for little children by artists and writers who know their field and the books are within reach of the poorest of us...
...They need them now as they never needed them before...
...Books For The Older Ones In wartime, children are distressed...
...It takes the mind away to pleasant places and in those pleasant places the spirit finds strength...
...The books I saw were just right in price and quality...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 51
