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 a unique literary charm.

After years of careful work we present some of these tales so as to utilize the child's love for the stories and make an easy road to reading. Avoiding the long struggle through forced interest, and the devious byways of artificial methods, we start the child at once into the realm of good, appropriate literature.

From the Preface