Up and down the country, among the factories, air-strips, scientific plant and all the other features of our formidable modern world, still lurk the little villages of England, where a continuity of custom and occupation still the link the England we know today with that older England know to us from our great poets and writers. They have their churches, these villages—often ancient and beautiful. And hard by there is apt to stand just such a village school as exists in the Berkshire village which 'Miss Read,' who has taught in rural schools, brings to life in this wise, delightful and companionable book.

In three parts corresponding to the three school terms, the author records the progress of her small pupils from the beginning of the autumn term through winter and spring, until summer holidays bring a welcome pause. She shows how closely school life is knitted, in these small, rural communities, to the seasonal changes of the year, and how intimate it can be when 'Teacher' is so familiar with the circumstances of all her pupils that she needs no explanation why one arrives with dirty hands, why another is always late, a third never partakes of the good school dinner although he eyes it so wistfully, and a fourth is given to day-dreaming in lessons.

One aspect of 'Miss Read's' book is her quietly-spoken but authoritative consideration of what education is and should be, but there are other aspects both entertaining and amusing. She has a clear eye and a witty pen and sketches parents and village characters as well as children with a penetrating humour. The events that loom large in the village year—Harvest Festival, Christmas and the carol-singing, Easter, the annual trip to the seaside with the Vicar, jam-making, the Fete and so on—are charmingly described.

Illustrated by J.S. Goodall, this is as refreshing a book as we have published in a long while.

From the dust jacket