For years the most progressive educators have been urging that only good literature should be used in school readers. Some authors of primers have thought it impossible to provide such material within the vocabulary that beginners can learn with ease. Others have used a little real literature with a large amount of unrelated and uninteresting material specially prepared for the sake of word repetition and phonic drill.

Experience proves that all children are interested in and enjoy the simple folk tales, which are the literary products of many minds and have survived the centuries, because they represent certain universal human experiences and satisfy certain common needs of childhood. Through countless repetitions, from one generation to another, they have assumed a form marked by simplicity and literary charm.

Equally interesting and wholesome are the nursery rhymes and jingles by Mother Goose, Christina G. Rossetti and others. After the Primer has been mastered, these bits of language-play, interspersed in little groups among the stories, add much to the delight of a child’s reading book.

From the Preface