Chapter 2

In the first place, among the special requirements of the young is this, that the library shall interest and be attractive to them. The attitude of some public libraries toward the young and the uncultivated seems to say to them, "We cannot encourage you in your low state of culture; you must come up to the level of appreciating what is really high toned in literature, or we cannot help you." The public library being, however, largely if not mainly for the benefit of the uncultivated, must, to a large extent, come down to the level of this class and meet them on common ground. Every library ought to have a large list of good juvenile books, a statement which at once raises the question, What are good juvenile books? This is one of the vexed questions of the literary world, closely allied to the one which has so often been mooted in the press and the pulpit, as to the utility and propriety of novel reading. But while this question is one on which there are great differences of opinion, there are a few things which may be said on it without diffidence or the fear of successful contradiction. Of this kind is the remark that good juvenile books must have something positively good about them. They should be not merely amusing or entertaining and harmless, but instructive and stimulating to the better nature. Fortunately such books are not so rare as they have been. Some of the best minds are now being turned to the work of providing them. Within a few months such honored names in the world of letters as those of Hamerton and Higginson have been added to the list which contains those of "Peter Parley," Jacob Abbott, "Walter Aimwell," Elijah Kellogg, Thomas Hughes, and others who have devoted their talents, not to the amusement, but to the instruction and culture of youth. The names of some of the most popular writers for young people in our day are not ranked with those mentioned above, not because their productions are positively injurious, but because they lack the positively good qualities demanded by our definition.

There is a danger to youth in reading some books which are not open to the charge of directly injurious tendencies. Many of the most popular juveniles, while running over with excellent "morals," are unwholesome mental food for the young, for the reason that they are essentially untrue. That is, they give false views of life, making it consist, if it be worth living, of a series of adventures, hair-breadth escapes; encounters with tyrannical schoolmasters and unnatural parents; sea voyages in which the green hand commands a ship and defeats a mutiny out of sheer smartness; rides on runaway locomotives, strokes of good luck, and a persistent turning up of things just when they are wanted --all of which is calculated in the long run to lead away the young imagination and impart discontent with the common lot of an uneventful life.

Books of adventure seem to meet a real want in the minds of the young, and should not be entirely ruled out; but they cannot be included among the books the reading of which should be encouraged or greatly extended. In the public library it will be found perhaps necessary not to exclude this class of juvenile books entirely. Such an exclusion is not here advocated, but it is rather urged that they should not form the staple of juvenile reading furnished by the library. The better books should be duplicated so as to be on hand when called for; these should be provided in such numbers merely that they can occasionally be had as the "seasoning" to a course of good reading.

But the young patrons of the library ought not to be encouraged in confining their reading to juveniles, of no matter how good quality. It is the one great evil of this era of juvenile books, good and bad, that by supplying mental food in the form fit for mere children, they postpone the attainment of a taste for the strong meat of real literature; and the public library ought to be influential in exalting this real literature and keeping it before the people, stemming with it the current of trash which is so eagerly welcomed because it is new or because it is interesting. When children were driven to read the same books as their elders or not to read at all, there were doubtless thousands, probably the majority of all, who chose the latter alternative, and read but very little in their younger years. This class is better off now than then by the greater inducements offered them to mental culture in the increased facilities provided for it. But there seems to be danger that the ease and smoothness of the royal road to knowledge now provided in the great array of easy books in all departments will not conduce to the formation of such mental growths as resulted from the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. There is doubtless more knowledge; but is there as much power and muscle of mind?

However this may be, none can fail to recognize the importance of setting young people in the way of reading the best books early in life. And as the public library is likely to be the one place where the masters of literature can be found, it is essential that here they should be put by every available means in communication with and under the influence of these masters.

It only remains now to say that, as we have before intimated the public library should be viewed as an adjunct of the public school system, and to suggest that in one or two ways the school may work together with the library in directing the reading of the young. There is the matter of themes for the writing of compositions; by selecting subjects on which information can be had at the library, the teacher can send the pupil to the library as a student, and readily put him in communication with, and excite his interest in, classes of books to which he has been a stranger and indifferent. Again, in the study of the history of English literature, a study which, to the credit of our teachers be it said, is being rapidly extended, the pupils may be induced to take new interest, and gain greatly in point of real culture by being referred for illustrative matter to the public library.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' READING

This first of a series of yearly reports on "Reading for the young" was made by Miss Caroline M. Hewins at the Cincinnati Conference of the A. L. A. in 1882. It embodies answers from twenty-five librarians to the question, "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?"

Caroline Maria Hewins was born in Roxbury, Mass., October 10, 1846. She attended high school in Boston; received her library training in the Boston Athenaeum; taught in private schools for several years, and took a year's special course in Boston University. In 1911 she received an honorary degree of M.A. from Trinity College, Hartford. She has been librarian in Hartford, Conn., for many years, from 1875 to 1892 in the Hartford Library Association, since that time in the Hartford Public Library. She has done editorial work for various magazines and has contributed many articles to the library periodicals. Her list of "Books for boys and girls," of which the third edition was published in 1915, represents the result of many years' thoughtful and appreciative study of children's literature. Library work with children owes to Miss Hewins a debt of gratitude for her unusual contribution to the establishment of high standards, the development of a broad vision, and the maintenance of a wholesome, sympathetic, but not sentimental point of view.

About the first of March I sent cards to the librarians of twenty-five of the leading libraries of the country, asking, "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?" and soon after published a notice in the New York Evening Post and Nation, saying that statements from librarians and teachers concerning their work in the same direction would be gladly received The cards brought, in almost every case, full answers; the newspaper notice has produced few results.

The printed report of the Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Mass., says: "The trustees have recently made a special effort to encourage the use of the library in connection with the course of teaching in the public schools. Under a rule adopted two years ago the teachers of certain grades of schools are in the practice of borrowing a number of those volumes they consider best adapted to the use of their scholars, and keeping them in constant circulation among them. During the year two lists of books for the use of the children in the public schools were printed under the direction of the trustees. One of these lists contained works in juvenile fiction; the other, biographies, histories, and books of a more instructive character. All the works included were selected by the trustees as being such as they would put in the hands of their own children. The lists thus prepared were then given to the teachers of the schools for gratuitous circulation among their scholars."

Mr. Green, of the Worcester, Mass., Free Public Library, writes: "The close connection which exists between the library and the schools is doing much to elevate the character of the reading of the boys and girls. Many books are used for collateral reading, others to supplement the instruction of text-books in geography and history, others still in the employment of leisure hours in school. Boys and girls are led to read good books and come to the library for similar ones. Lists of good books are kept in the librarian's room, and are much used by teachers and pupils."

Mr. Upton, of the Peabody Library, Peabody, Mass., gives as his opinion: "If teachers did their duty, librarians would not be troubled as to good reading. My experience of about thirty- five or forty years as a public grammar-school teacher is, that teachers can control, to a great extent, the reading of their pupils, and also that, as a class, teachers are not GREAT readers. We should have little trouble in changing to some degree our circulation, but our thirteen-foot shelves and long ladders prevent the employment of the best help. We print bulletins and assist all who ask aid."

Miss Bean, of the Public Library, Brookline, Mass., says: "I have no statistics of results relative to my school finding-list. Its influence is quietly but steadily making itself felt. The teachers tell me that many of the pupils use no other catalogue in selecting books from the library, and I know there are many families where the children are restricted to its use. We keep two or three interleaved and posted with the newest books when I think them desirable. Several of the teachers have told me personally that they had found the list useful to themselves; but teachers are mortal and human. Many of them think duty done when the day's session is over, and the matter of outside reading with their pupils is of little moment to them. I want to get out a revised list, with useful notes."

Mr. Rice, of the City Library, Springfield, Mass., writes: "We have a manuscript catalogue of the best and most popular books for boys and girls. We call attention to the best books as we have opportunity when the young people visit the library. We endeavor to influence the teachers in our public schools to aid us in directing the attention of boys and girls to the best juveniles, and such other books as they can appreciate."

Mr. Arnold, of the Public Library, Taunton, Mass., says: "What I am doing is to indicate in the margin of my catalogues the works which are adapted to the taste and comprehension of young people, so that not only their own attention may be diverted from the fiction department, but that their parents and teachers may easily furnish them with proper lists. We aim at excluding from the library books of a sensational character, as well as those positively objectionable on the score of morality."

Miss James, librarian of the Free Library, Newton, Mass., in speaking of the catalogue, without notes, of children's books, published by that library in 1878, and given to the pupils of the public schools, says: "I do not think that catalogue ever influenced a dozen children. We have just completed a very full card-catalogue which the children use a great deal in connection with their studies. Eleven hundred zinc headings are a great help. I frequently speak to the children to get acquainted with them, so they are quite free to ask for help. Our local paper has offered me half a column a week for titles and notices. I shall, of course, notice children's books as well as others." Mr. Peirce, the superintendent, says in his last report: "It is only from homes where the intellectual and moral character of childhood is neglected, as a rule, that the library with us is in any wise abused by the over-crowding of the mind with novels. In many of even these cases kind and wise restraint can be, and is, exercised by the librarian."

Mr. Cummings, curator of the Lower Hall card-catalogue of the Boston Public Library, and Miss Jenkins, assistant librarian in the same place, have kindly sent me the manuscripts of their forthcoming reports to the trustees. These reports are wholly on the methods and results of their personal intercourse with readers, and the increase in special reading during the last few years. Concerning boys and girls Mr. Cummings writes: "I must not forget the juvenile readers, school-boys and school- girls, and the children from the stores and offices about town. These latter are smart, bright, active little bodies, often more in earnest than their more fortunate fellows of the same age. They are an object of special solicitude and care. The school children come for points in reading for their compositions and for parallel reading with their lessons in school; and such books are suggested as may be found useful. The two most available faculties in children to work upon are the heart and the imagination. Get a hold on their affections by encouraging words and manifesting a readiness to help them, and you command their devotion and confidence. Give them interesting books (Optic and Alger, if needs be), and you fix their attention. Above all, let the book be interesting; for the attention is never fixed by, nor does the memory ever retain, what is laborious to read. But, once assured of their devotion, with their confidence secured and their attention fixed, there is nothing to prevent the work of direction succeeding admirably with them."

Miss Jenkins says: "The use of the library by the young people is increasing every year. The change in the character of children's books has been a great help to us, fairly crowding out many of the trashy stories so long the favorite reading. One of the first things that attracted my attention was their perseverance in seeking certain authors, and their continual exchange of books. I soon found their difficulties with the catalogue. They read only stories, and wanted those full of incident and excitement; when their favorite author failed, they sought for something else that sounded right in the catalogue, or sometimes wrote only the numbers without much reference to the titles, trusting, I suppose, to luck. Not liking the looks of the books they would return them. A steady recurrence of this made it a nuisance.

One of my first steps was to join one of the many groups around the room, and look over with them, suggest this author, or this, that, and the other book, until they were furnished with a list of books fairly suited to their age, and then, suggesting that the list should be kept for future reference, pass on to another group. This is now a general practice, and seems to suit the little folks; if, after several applications, they are unsuccessful, it is my custom to get them a book. My young people began to ask me to help their friends, also to help others themselves; so gradually the bright faces of my boy and girl friends have grown familiar, and as they gain confidence in me we strike out into other paths, and many bright, readable books, historical or containing bits of geography or elementary science, have been read. It so happened that many of my young friends grew quite confidential, and told me about their school and lessons. It was not very difficult to induce them to read some things bearing upon their studies; these books were shown to their teachers, and many were ready to cooperate at once; this led to an acquaintance with several, and the teachers' plan of study became a basis of selection for reading in history, biography, travel, and natural science. From books suited to their capacity much effective work has been done. Several classes have studied English history, and their reading has been made supplementary from the topics. Later, when a list of notable persons was given to them, they showed the effect of their reading by giving very good short sketches of these persons. American history--colonial, revolutionary, administrations, civil war, reconstruction--has been treated similarly, and the teachers are much gratified at the result. We find that these boys do not fall back to trashy reading, but ask for better reading in place of their old favorites.

Several girls of the high school have sought assistance in their various studies, especially in Greek and Roman history, and have read, in connection with the histories recommended, novels and some interesting travels, and have spent much time over engravings and photographs illustrative of their reading. Two of these girls, having asked me for a novel, meaning something like their former reading, I made tests by giving them exactly what they asked for. Very soon both books were returned, with the remark, 'I couldn't read it.' In a little talk that ensued, and in which I drew from them a criticism of their reading, it dawned upon them that they had developed, or grown, as they said. I could go on giving instances of this gradual development in individual cases, and of its influence upon others to whom these readers recommended what they had read, the increased call for the better books of fiction, biography, history, travel, miscellany, and science. In four years' work books of sensational incident, so long popular, have lost much of their charm. They have been crowded out by better books and personal interests in the young people themselves."

Mr. Foster of the Public Library, Providence, R. I., has sent an account in detail of his work among pupils and teachers, which may be thus condensed: Soon after the opening of the library, in 1878, he held a conference with the grammar-school masters of the city, and through them met the other teachers. He printed for the use of pupils a list of suggestions, some of the most important of which were summed up in the following words: "Begin by basing your reading on your school text-books;" "Learn the proper use of reference-books;" "Use imaginative literature, but not immoderately;" "Do not try to cover too much ground;" "Do not hesitate to ask for assistance and suggestions at the library;" "See that you make your reading a definite gain to you in some direction."

Mr. Foster soon gained influence among the teachers by personally addressing them, and began to publish annotated lists of books for young readers. A reading hour was established in the public schools, and pupils learned to give in their own language the substance of books which they had read. Mr. Foster says: "Our plans were by no means limited to the public schools, but included Brown University, the Rhode Island State Normal School, the Commercial College, the private schools for girls, and the two private boys' schools preparatory for college, one of which has ten teachers and some two hundred and fifty pupils. One morning I met the boys of this school in their chapel, and gave them a twenty minutes' talk on reading, particularly on the question how to direct one's current reading, as of newspapers, into some channel of permanent interest and value. Since my address before the teachers of the State (published in the papers and proceedings of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction for 1880) we have had many calls for assistance from outside the city, from teachers in the high schools and grammar schools of other places. In 1878 I began the preparation of a bulletin of new books, issued quarterly by the State Board of Education, and there have been several instances of a series of references in connection with school-work. In July, 1880, I sent to the different teachers a series of suggestions about the reading of their pupils, covering such points as preserving a record of the books read, books not being read and returned at too frequent intervals, and the inspection of these matters by the teacher, or rather establishing communication between the teacher and pupil so that these things shall be talked over." Finding-lists have been checked for the schools, appeals have been made by Mr. Foster in public addresses for supervision of children's reading by teachers and parents, and duplicate copies of books have been placed in the library for school use. In conclusion, Mr. Foster adds: "There has been a gradual and steady advance in methods of cooperation and mutual understanding, so that now it is a perfectly understood thing, throughout the schools, among teachers and pupils, that the library stands ready to help them at almost every point."

Mrs. Sanders, of the Free Public Library, Pawtucket, R. I., writes: "I am circulating by the thousand Rev. Washington Gladden's 'How and What to Read,' published as a circular by the State Board of Education of Rhode Island. I am constantly encouraging the children to come to me for assistance, which they are very ready to do; and I find that after boys have had either a small or a full dose of Alger (we do not admit 'Optic'), they are very ready to be promoted to something more substantial-- Knox, Butterworth, Coffin, Sparks, or Abbott. I find more satisfaction in directing the minds of boys than girls, for though I may and generally do succeed in interesting them in the very best of fiction, it is much more difficult to draw them into other channels, unless it is poetry. I should like very much to know if this is the experience of other librarians. My aim is first to interest girls or boys according to their ability to enjoy or appreciate, and gradually to develop whatever taste is the most prominent. For instance, I put on the shelves all mechanical books for boys; works upon adornments for homes--painting, drawing, music, aids to little housekeepers, etc., for the girls."

Mr. Fletcher, of the Watkinson Library, Hartford, Conn., says, in a recent address on the public library question in its moral and religious aspect: "Many of our public libraries beg the whole question, so far as it refers to the youngest readers, by excluding them from the use of books. A limit of fourteen or sixteen years is fixed, below which they are not admitted to the library as its patrons. But, in some of those more recently established, the wiser course has been adopted of fixing no such limitation. For, in these times, there is little probability that exclusion from the library will prevent their reading. Poor, indeed, in resources must be the child who cannot now buy, beg, or borrow a fair supply of reading of some kind; so that exclusion from the library is simply a shutting up of the boy or girl to the resources of the home and the book-shop or newspaper. A slight examination of the literature found in a majority of homes and most prominent in the shops is enough to show what this means, and to explain the fact, that the young persons first admitted to the public library at fourteen years of age come to it with a well-developed taste for trash and a good acquaintance with the names of authors in that department of literature, but with apparently little capacity left for culture in higher directions."