ay be that
some parents will feel uncertain what advice to give their boys and
girls when asked about other books than those indicated in the text. For
such the following lists have been prepared.

At the present day, good libraries are to be found in almost every town,
and either from the school or the town library may be drawn most of the
books mentioned. Books are always good presents, and from these lists
parents who have watched the development of their children's tastes will
find helpful hints in the selection of presents that will be accepted
with joy and read with continued pleasure.

The training these plans for reading have given will excite interest in
the great classics which the quantities of light, frivolous stories
carelessly written for children have in a measure relegated to the
background. These classics are the foundation of literature, and without
a knowledge of them, best obtained in youth, genuine culture seems
almost impossible.

In presenting the lists it has seemed best to make some of them parallel
to the volumes of this work rather than to arrange them by the ages of
the children or their grades in school. The power to read intelligently
and with appreciation is not wholly dependent upon age, nor does rank in
school show the capability of the young person. Some boys of twelve will
read and enjoy things that others of sixteen will find almost
impossible. Not infrequently a little "sixth-grader" reads better
literature than many a high school student. Other lists for older boys
and girls are classified according to subject-matter. The method in
every case is obvious.

This series is for boys and girls of all ages; for girls as much as for
boys. Good literature appeals to universal taste, and there is little
question of sex in it. There was a time when girls were thought so
different from boys that "girls' books" were written in abundance. Now
that girls are given the same education that boys have, they usually
like the same things. There will be found nearly as great extremes of
taste in one sex as in the other during those years to which this set is
adapted. Whatever difference there is in the sexes will manifest itself
in what each selects for his or her own from the masterpiece that both
read. That we get from our reading what we put into it, is as true of us
when we are young as it is when we have grown older. To as great an
extent as Alice is different from Fred will what she gets from