[Book Reviews]

Abstract

THIS little volume is the first of a series of “Nature Readers,” intended for the use of beginners in reading. As a rule, the authors of reading-books take little trouble to excite the interest of children. Their object is to bring together a number of simple sentences, and they seem to be indifferent whether the sentences express sense or nonsense. In the present series an attempt will be made to convey, through reading-lessons, some of the more attractive elementary facts of science; and, if we may judge from the degree of success attained in “Sea-side and Way-side,” the volumes are likely to be cordially welcomed in many primary schools in England as well as in the United States. The author has taken, as the subjects of her lessons, crabs, wasps, bees, spiders, and shell-fish; and she has contrived to put into the simplest and most direct language a great deal of really useful and entertaining information. Almost all children find something to interest them in what they are told about the habits of animals, and it is not improbable that these bright and pleasant lessons will implant in a good many young minds the seeds of an enduring love of natural history.

Sea-side and Way-side.

By Julia McNair Wright. (Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1888.)