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Sterling A. Leonard on children's book reviews

The Essential Principles of Teaching Reading and Literature (1922)

From Chapter IX - THE USES OF COMPOSITION IN TEACHING LITERATURE

A. GOOD AND SIMPLE BOOK NOTES AND EXAMINATIONS IN LITERATURE

In the book clubs which we have been considering as a phase of the literature class teaching, we came upon the pupils' attempts to tell one another about the books they have liked or possibly disliked, to influence them to read or not to read. This is of course only one manifestation of a missionary instinct, and like the rest of its kind is liable to the mistakes of zeal. The child's report, where it is more than an animated phrase of commendation or disparagement, is usually a tedious and detailed resume of the plot, with embroidery of comment that it was "awfully exciting" here or "funny" there. Oftenest the reader or hearer finds no real persuasion of its excitement or humor. The worst form of this usually futile an even pernicious summary is reached in certain "books of knowledge" that are very popular nowadays with parents; these give complete resumes of the novels of Scott and Dickens, with the result usually that the child thinks he has "got" them - just as he has got miscellaneous information from these same books. After such a false start it is only rarely that the child reads the literature itself.

The summary or resume, like the synopsis of preceding chapters in a serial story, is generally a worthless and dull form of report. Its main justification is to prove that the child has read the book. But it is of course possible to find this out by less tedious means. The right sort of report will, besides, give sufficient information for testing the intelligence of the reading. Summaries are in place in certain situations in the teaching of reading or composition, where there is an occasion for doing them well.(1) But they seem to have a harmful rather than a helpful relation to increase in literary understanding and true appreciation.

A few summaries by willing pupils, not allowed to use an undue amount of the class time, may be admitted order to introduce the question: "Does this sort of report make you eager to read the book? What do you want to know about a book before starting it? What do you think will make the class want to read your book? " A discussion may be begun of the kinds of books the pupils enjoy - in grades or junior high school, mainly stories of adventure and humorous stories. Once this is discovered, we come to the question: "How would you tell somebody else what would let him know whether he wanted to read a certain humorous or adventurous story?" For people differ widely in their ideas of what is funny or what is good adventure. They want to know what kind of adventure it is, or what makes you think the tale funny.

Pupils very soon get into a way of suggesting to those who report that they give a sample of their story to illustrate. Perhaps they read a bit of the story; more often they tell an incident or two that backs up their point. Incidentally, they learn the value of good illustrative matter - examples or samples in all composition that aims to make a point. But the major interest here is in seeing whether, in a very brief talk or book note, each cannot get his book so well before the rest of the class that several will want to read it.

A number of classes in one school from the third grade up have helped in making a file of cards about various books in the library which they have read and can recommend.' These cards are kept for the succeeding class, who may want to read similar books, and the aim is to prepare such a statement in a few words as will be of major help to someone else in deciding whether to read the book. From time to time, in intermediate grades and high school, slightly longer reviews may be assigned as regular oral or written themes, usually addressed to the class and commenting on books that most have not yet read. The interest that the cards excite and the real eagerness in question and criticism when reviews are given orally or read before the class is one indication of the reality and value of the process.

In all this we must avoid the evils and stupidities of what Professor Aydelotte calls "infant criticism." It is harmfully priggish for youngsters to give second-hand comments on Longfellow's verse structure or on his imitation on of continental authors. Nothing is more futile and wrong than to allow pupils to present any sort of opinion on subjects of which they have no real knowledge. But on certain matters each child who reads earnestly and with honest attempt at understanding is a first-rate authority. He knows whether the reading of a story actually "made him feel like being there and seeing it happen" or "made him think he was right in it." And here he has a basis for judging quite honestly whether he likes the story - whether he enjoys that sort of realization or not. Like one junior high-school boy reading The Black Arrow, he may say, "If you're reading it before dinner you don't want to stop for any dinner," to which another responds heartily, "You said it." Provided always he tells what he likes or dislikes about it, he is in little danger of vague generalization or second-hand opinion. And this is a question which he can readily answer, while "Why he likes it," as Professor F. T. Baker says, is for a long time - probably till late in the senior high school - beyond him.

In a seventh-grade class a girl who still read mainly fairy stories reported that she liked the Boy Vigilantes in Belgium because such impossible things happened, one after the other. This did not influence anybody to read the book, because nobody else in that class had the same tastes. In the same hour two others objected to Jules Verne's Mysterious Islandbecause mere improbable chance often helped the characters out at dire need-their discovery of one match, or of a box of quinine carried in by the dog. But still another boy pointed out that even if there was one match found, the fire they lighted with it went out, "and then they had an awful time trying to light a fire with a burning glass." I found Sherlock Holmes criticized harshly in the same class because the hero "always knows everything;" The Sign of the Four was praised because there that hero "gets fooled." Of another story, in the modern mode of sudden plunges into violent activity, a boy said, "It begins in such a hurry that you don't know what's happened and have to read two or three chapters to find out." Such criticism is perfectly normal and intelligent, based as it is on the pupil's own experience and observation, and it makes for real and solid standards for choosing books to read. It is quite different from the "infant criticism," the mere parroting of opinions heard or read but unrealized, which is encouraged in many literature classes.

EXAMPLES OF BOOK NOTES

This, then, is the sort of report or criticism upon a book of which we can make most profitable use : We can ask what sort of book it is and what the pupil likes or dislikes in it, with samples or illustrations of his point. We can get this sort of report either in class discussion, in card form for filing, or as a theme addressed to the class or sometimes to the teacher. In telling "what sort of book it is" pupils may find it convenient to discover that "what happened? where? and when?" are chiefly important. It is so useful to have the answer to this question formulated by the pupils before they come into a class for discussion of books read that we may well suggest that they write out at least this statement for use in their oral reports.(3) If they add to this a specific statement of what they like or dislike in their book, or what they think the author most enjoyed writing, with illustrations or possibly readings from the book itself, they have done all that need be expected of pupils in the grades or the junior high school in making reports on their general reading. But all this should be quite informal and natural. I add several booknotes by pupils in various grades, not as models, but simply as samples of such work as can be expected from any child of usual intelligence who has read a book with keen interest and who has a sensible reason for reporting on it to someone else.

The third-grade reports were specially frank in discussing the grading of the books read, because the pupils understood that the list for the next third grade would be built in part on the recommendations:(4)

The Story of a Bad Boy (note by a girl).

I did not read it through. I think it is too old for third-grade children.

The Counterpane Fairy (note by the same child).

I read it through. I liked it. Teddy was a little sick boy. His mother was up with him most of the night and had gone to take a nap. Teddy heard someone say, " Oh, dear, what a hill to climb! " It was the Counterpane Fairy. She came every day to see him.

Two girls' opinion on Merry Tales by E. L. and A. M. Skinner.

I did not care much for it. I did not read it through. It was too babyish. This book is full of stories. I like the book because it has many good stories about fairies and brownies and plain people.

Another girl reports on Gulliver's Travels:

It is the best book I ever read. It tells about how Gulliver gets shipwrecked on an island which is inhabited by little people. In his next travel a storm takes them out of their course and they land on an island. He wanders off, and when he comes back he sees that they have gone away and he is left in the hands of giants. You will like it, I know.

Letters from a Cat by Helen Hunt.

I like it very much. So would you. It is about a cat that writes letters to its master that is away.

The Fables of AEsop--edited by Joseph Jacobs.

I like this book because it is about animals and men. Each story has a meaning to it, but I like it because the stories are so nice.

The Odyssey for Boys and Girls by Church.

I liked it. I read it through. I liked it because it had bravery and romance in it. And the way it was told.

FROM THE FOURTH GRADE

Jack of all Trades by Beard.

I like it very much. I liked it because it was about making things. I am making a house at school, so this book was very useful.

Puck of Pook's Hill by Kipling.

I don't like this one very much because it is very dreary. It is not the kind I like.

Emmeline by Elsie Singmaster.

I can say one thing about this book, that it is not like other stories about what every child does every day. It is about a girl who lived in the Civil War and her mother sends her to her grandmother and grandfather and they are not there, and the rebels come and she helps bandage the wounded rebels.

Why the Chimes Rang by Alden.

I like this book because it tells of the rewards one gets from being pious and kind. [!]

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield

I think the book is very nice and interesting. It is about a little girl who was born, and she was not very strong to begin with. But in the end she was strong, rosy, and sun-burned.

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL REPORTS

Of Mitchell's Adventures of Francois an eighth-grade boy wrote

An adventure story of an orphan during the French Revolution. He gets into some very tight scrapes.

A seventh-grade boy thus describes Silas Manner - he is at least sincere:

I have read Silas Manner. It is an interesting book, but quite dry in places. It takes a good while to get started, and when it does get started it doesn't go very fast.

The same boy wrote

The Wind in the Willows is a book about some animals that live like people. It is very interesting, even though the name sounds babyish.

And also

A Christmas Carol is a very nice descriptive story. It is about an old miser who gets affected by a spirit, and then is very charitable.

Typee by Herman Melville.

Typee is the story of two runaways from a ship, and their adventure. The Typees are reported to be a fierce, warlike tribe, but it turns out to be a peaceful, lazy community. Nevertheless, the two comrades are in constant peril of being dined upon. Parts of it are very funny.

Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Grade 7).

Tom Sawyer is a very funny story, and there are a lot of good tricks in it which boys should know. Huck Finn is the same sort of a story as Tom Sawyer.

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson (Grade 8).

Ramona is a book written about the cruel treatment of the Indians in the southern part of California. The heroine is Ramona, who is half Indian and half Mexican. She lives with an aunt who has no affection for her and is devoutly religious. I like it for one reason because of the very interesting characters. I think it was written to save the Indians, something as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written to free the negroes.

The Cruise of the Cachalot by Frank T. Bullen (Grade 7)

This is the story of a whaling barque that cruised around the world. It is a true story, but in some places it seems very unlikely. Two men are killed by whales and three boats smashed. The captain is murdered by one of the crew, who killed himself also. They [?] visited several islands in the Pacific. I like this book very much because it is true and not just a fake.

Captains Courageous

I like most books about boats, but I didn't like this one very much. I didn't like it because it was rather slow reading and it took rather a long time to say anything.

The book like Puck, earlier, clearly belongs in a higher grade.

The Biography of a Grizzly by Ernest Seton-Thompson

Ernest Seton-Thompson has given in this book the life history of a grizzly bear. His cubhood, manhood, and old age are described in a very interesting manner. I like the parts best where the bear kills his enemies, including men who shoot at him for sport. He is also intelligent, as he learn to get out of bear traps.

Tom Sawyer.

Tom Sawyer a very interesting book about a boy. It is characteristically like a boy, and he shows great ingenuity in scrapes. It is a very good adventure story and quite exciting. Tom didn't have any mother or father and he just lived with his Aunt Polly. He also had a goody-goody brother named Sid, who was younger than himself. One Saturday he had to whitewash a fence. All the boys made fun of him, but he pretended that it wasn't work at all, and that no one else could do it as well. All the boys finally wanted to paint the fence so much that each one gave Tom something to let him do it instead.

Notes

1. Chapter VI, pp. 178 ff.

2. See Miss Eaton's account of these notes, English Journal, December, 1920.

3. This, as well as the questions for the book-notes, was suggested by Professor W. S. Hinchman.

4. All these reports, and the themes following, are word for word as the pupils wrote them, but the spelling and punctuation have in most cases been standardized. Most of these are probably at least one year in advance of pupils in corresponding public school grades.