Excerpt from A First Reader: Designed to Teach Animated, Expressive, Oral Reading

There is no break between the Primer and First Reader of this series. To make the transition from one book to the other very simple and easy, the last thirty new words introduced into the Primer are used in the first twenty pages of the First Reader in new combinations. Thus the same vocabulary is being used, but the words are in entirely new relations. This makes the bridge between the Primer and First Reader very easy to cross.

The vocabulary is carried on through the first half of the book in connection with subjects suited to arouse the active interest of children. The form of the stories then changes, but without the slightest break in the grading of the vocabulary.

The second part consists of a simple, connected story of a kitten, called The Life of Snowball. It is arranged in this form so that the children may be gradually led from short, simple statements of inter esting objects and actions to the smooth, easy sentence forms of the Second Reader.

The next part of the book is in still a different form. It couples the play idea of the dolls with the true home life of the children themselves. Here alsothe vocabulary is drawn wholly from Objects familiar to children in their own homes, thus making the inter est vital and keen. Each doll is mistress of a certain room in the doll house, and a simple title to each story forms another step toward the appreciation of the Second Reader. This reader closes with a short series of stories called The Boys' Club, which will be found especially interesting to boys of the First Reader age. The vocabulary is developed in the same careful way to the very end of the book.

As in the Primer, the new words are found at the head of each lesson.

The First Reader and Primer stand as com panion books in aim and method and so close is the relation of one to the other, that the First Reader needs the support of the Primer to round out the course as planned.

Note. While there are words in this book, there are only 255 new words. There are 32 words carried over from the Primer, which makes 287 fundamental words altogether. Since Expressive Oral Reading is the aim of this series, the advantages of the limited vocabulary will readily appear.

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