Young Years Library was a five or 10-volume anthology of reading material for children. The product evolved over the years, but generally it was sold direct to parents who wanted to provide an educational or literary advantage to their children. Many of the great children's librarians of the day were involved, including the pioneering Augusta Braxton Baxter. My copy, published in 1963, includes a 72-page list of recommended books for various ages and stages. To my eye, many of these books have long since been forgotten, not least because of the revolution in children's literature that took place following the publication that year of Sendak's
Where the Wild Things Are. I'll be transcribing the sections of the
Mother's Guide to Children's Reading reading list, one by one, in hopes of providing a starting point for modern mamas looking to explore more unusual, likely out-of-print book suggestions, beyond those usually included in generally available contemporary reading prescriptions. Copyright, of course, remains with Home Library Press.
The poignant tale of a Jewish family
with five daughters in New York's Lower East Side. Sequels are:
More All-of-a-Kind Family
All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown
Enchanting tale of a crippled boy and
his mother whose guests one memorable night were the Three Magi on
their way to Bethlehem. The book is an adaptation by Frances Frost of
Menotti's memorable opera.
Twelve-year-old Miguel lives on a sheep
ranch in New Mexico. A Newbery Award winner.
A very fine collection designed to
introduce the young reader to a literary gem.
Excellent period story of New England
in the 1800s and of a mobile, ox-driven house. Sequels are:
Five
Bushel Farm
The Fair American
The Wonderful Day
The lively adventure of three little
girls studying ballet in London.
Old World family loyalties play a big
role in an Italian neighborhood in New York's Greenwich Village.
Another story about New York by the same author:
Big Little Island
Amos is the mouse that lived in
Benjamin Franklin's old fur cap, and here he recounts his master's
biography.
In the colonial days of Pennsylvania, a
cat shows a Quaker boy how to become a great painter.
The everyday doings of five-year-old
Betsy and her friend. The setting is a small town in Minnesota during
the 1890s. The book began a series which carried Betsy and her
friends through school to eventual marriage:
Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Heavens to Betsy!
Betsy's Wedding
Betsy in Spite of Herself
Betsy Was a Junior
Betsy and Joe
Carney's House Party
The Great World
The Bible Story for Boys and Girls: Old
Testament. Retold by Walter R. Bowie, illustrated by Stephani and
Edward Godwin. Abingdon.
Bible stories told in modern language
with dignity, taste and simplicity. Sequel is:
The Bible Story for Boys and Girls: New
Testament
The thrilling story of a courageous
Japanese boy in a fishing village and a great tidal wave.
The adventures of little Betsy at home
and in school. Sequels to the Betsy series are:
Betsy and Billy
Back to School with Betsy
Betsy's Winterhouse
Betsy and the Boys
Betsy's Busy Summer
Thrilling story of a wild horse and his
boy trainer. Others in this favorite series among boys and girls
are:
Black Stallion and Satan
Black Stallion Returns
Black Stallion Revolts
Black Stallion's Filly
Blood Bay Colt
Island Stallion
Island Stallion's Fury
Son of the Black Stallion
A little boy trains a blind colt to
become a fine saddle horse. Others in this excellent series about
horses:
Stolen Pony
Whitney Takes a Trip
Whitney Ropes and Rides
Whitney and the Blind Horse
Story of a loveable little girl in a
Southwest setting.
A migrant worker's daughter wants more
than anything in the world a home than a home that stays in one
place.
Borrowers are funny little people, and
whenever a human being misses something he always knows it is one of
the little people who borrowed it. Sequels are:
The Borrowers Afield
The Borrowers Afloat
The Borrowers Aloft
Sensitively-written story of a
ten-year-old Negro girl in Pennsylvania.
The thrilling tale of a boy's search
for a jungle elephant.
The adventures of a spirited tomboy and
her brothers in the Wisconsin of the 1860s. A Newbery Award winner. A
Caddie sequel:
Magical Melons
A beautifully written Polynesian legend
about a chieftan's son who shows indomitable courage in the face of
peril.
Mischevious monkeys steal all the caps
out of a sleeping peddler's pack and enjoy themselves immensely as
the peddler tries to get the caps back.
A modern classic about how Charlotte's
ability to write messages in her spider web brought happiness to a
little girl and saved the life of a small pig.
A little boy spends Easter vacation in
an old English country house and meets children who had played there
many years before. Other titles in the Green Knowe series are:
The Children of Green Knowe
The River of Green Knowe
A Stranger at Green Knowe
A mother elephant, intrigued by the
good manners of the clown family, who appear in a circus with her,
decides that her baby elephant should grow up with good manners, too,
and the first thing she tries to do is put the baby elephant in a
high chair.
A classic collection of stories written
in the late nineteenth century about a wonderfully impractical
family.
Inspiring American tale of
eight-year-old Sarah who helps her pioneer family to build their home
in the Connecticut wilderness in the early eighteenth century.
The grim life behind an Iron Curtain
country and the exciting escape of a young boy out of Hungary.
A fascinating story of a little girl
who travels all the way from Tibet to Calcutta to find her stolen
dog.
The Great Plague in England of the 13th century cripples little Robin, but he shows amazing pluck. A Newbery
Award winner.
Twelve popular folk tales from Norway,
including “The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body” and “Princess
on the Glass Hill.”
A town achieves its library through the
imaginative efforts of a young girl named Emily.
A New Hampshire boy finds an egg that
hatches out, of all things, a dinosaur.
A hound dog beats the local, the
freight and the Cannon Ball Express.
Freddy is a poor little pig who has no
tail to wag, but despite this handicap, he becomes a hero. In this
tale he reads “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” and becomes a
dandy detective. Other books in this series are:
Freddy, the
Cowboy
Freddy and Mr. Camphor
Freddy and the Perilous Adventure
Freddy Goes to Florida
Freddy and the Popinjay
Freddy and the Space Ship
Tale of a tame Indian tiger and his
young master.
A remote farm in eighteenth-century
Connecticut is the setting for this exciting story about a
fourteen-year-old girl and her mother.
A family's hardships when they move
from rural Puerto Rico to cold and crowded New York.
Fascinating European and Asian folk
tales.
Nine-year-old Nancy spends her summer
vacation with her Swedish grandparents in New England and is given
her own name day.
Portia and her small brother on
vacation discover an abandoned summer colony near a swamp. Sequel:
Return to Gone-Away
The fascinating Wanda Gag version of
the folk tale about the man who thought he would prefer his wife's
work to his own.
Cousin Kate comes from the city a
precocious brat but emerges a nicer person after a stay on her
uncle's ranch. Hungarian traditions give the story a lovely touch.
A story of the life of a little girl on
a farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country.
Today's typical boy gets into all sorts
of scrapes—many of them excruciatingly funny—just as Henry does.
Others in the series:
Henry and Beezus
Henry and Risby
Beezus and Ramona
Henry and the Paper Route
The adventures of a wooden doll
beginning as a heathen idol and ending in the window of an antique
shop. A Newbery Award winner.
The hilarious adventures of Homer and
his friends in a Midwestern town. The sequel is:
Centerburg Tales
Very funny story of a moose and two
little boys.
A little Chinese boy, during the early
period of the Japanese invasion, is separated from his family and is
finally reunited with them.
The warm story of ten-year-old Jennie
who, with the help of several Ukranian refugee children, learns there
are many kinds of people in the world.
Moving story of Wanda, a little Polish
girl, and her desperate attempts to make her American classmates like
her.
The amusing tale of a dog who instructs
a family from the city on the proper enjoyment of life in the
country.
A tender family story of life in Japan,
and of Keiko, who brings her father lots of good luck.
True story of a famous Arabian
stallion, ancestor of the race horse Man O' War. Other popular horse
stories by the same author:
Misty of Chincoteague
Sea Star
The famous collie is sold, but shows
faithfulness to her young master when she travels over 400 miles to
find him again.
A splendid pioneer family story set in
Wisconsin of the 1870s. Sequels are:
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little Town on the Prairie
Long Winter
These Happy Golden Years
Farmer Boy
This little boy is forever getting into
trouble when he leaves home. Sequels are:
Little Pear and His Friends
Little Pear and the Rabbits
Three boys—one white, one Malay, one
Chinese—set their sights on a canoe, and forget their racial
differences as they cooperate to acquire it.
Delightfully fanciful tale about a king
who orders one person after another to fetch the moon for his little
princess.
A little boy saves his mother and
sister from the Indians. The story is set in the Hudson Valley of the
mid-eighteenth century.
Melindy is an eight-year-old Negro girl
whose courage earns her a medal.
Warm family story of Marly and her
brother who move from the city to a farm in Pennsylvania, where they
find a new and rewarding way of life.
Miss Pickerell, who could not stand
heights and was even made dizzy by the sight of a stepladder,
unexpectedly finds herself on a spaceship to Mars. Other Miss
Pickerell adventures in:
Miss Pickerell Goes Undersea
Miss Pickerell and the Geiger Counter
Miss Pickerell Goes to the Arctic
In a tongue-in-cheek biography,
reminiscent of the author's “Ben and Me,” the horse that Paul
Revere rode tells of the events leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The everyday adventures of four New
England children who live with their mother in a yellow house. Other
titles in the Moffat series are:
Middle Moffat
Rufus M
How a doll who lives in Dulce's
imagination helps a little girl to accept how things as they really
are.
The adventures of a boy and his black
lamb. Sequel:
A Place for Peter
An old Russian folk tale about the
search of a little girl for her mother.
No one believes little Andrew when he
says there's a bear in his bed.
Norwegian Folk Tales, by Peter C.
Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, illustrated by Erik Werenskiold and
Theodor Kittelsen. Viking.
The authors of these fascinating tales
are the Norwegian counterparts of the Brothers Grimm.
Charming folk tales from Turkey.
Old and new folk-tale favorites,
especially for the storyteller and for reading aloud. Sequel:
More Once-Upon-a-Time Tales
A Navaho lad first disappoints his
father and then becomes a hero.
The adventures of a courageous Greek
boy and his little sister, orphaned by an earthquake, as they lose
and then find each other again.
The good and bad behavior of a little
boy who craves attention.
The humorous adventures of a little
girl, a horse and a monkey.
The story of a little girl in
Pennsylvania and how she learns to blend modern ways with the Old
World traditions of her Amish parents.
A colt and his young master win glory
in a thrilling race.
A boy's trek 300 miles across India to
Agra to find aid for his sister's failing eyesight. In this moving
story the real hero is the World Health Organization.
A collection of more than 400 rhymes,
chants, game songs, and tongue twisters.
Humorous stories about modern life.
Four motherless children, their father
and a housekeeper find a way to spend their Saturdays in New York.
Others in this popular chronicle of the Melendy faimly:
The
Four-Story Mistake
Then There Were Five
Spiderweb for Two
Convincing boarding-school story of how
a lonely girl in her first year makes a friend.
A witty Russian tale about a king who
is outsmarted by a small group of peasant boys.
A family's adventures during the San
Francisco earthquake.
An African's lion is saved by a little
boy.
The exciting story of sabotage by
children in Nazi-occupied Norway.
Good retelling of the old French tale
about the three soldiers who dupe the villagers.
Excellently told stories from the King
James version.
Selections of classic mythology based
on Bulfinch's Age of Fable and written for children.
The famous animal doctor who learned
the language of the animals from his parrot and who journeyed to
Africa to fight an epidemic among the monkeys. Others in the popular
Dr. Dolittle series are:
The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle
Doctor Doolittle's Post Office
Doctor Doolittle's Circus
Doctor Doolittle's Zoo
Doctor Doolittle's Caravan
Doctor Doolittle's Garden
Doctor Doolittle in the Moon
Doctor Doolittle's Return
Doctor Doolittle and the Secret Lake
Doctor Doolittle and the Green Canary
Doctor Doolittle's Puddleby Adventures
A regional true-to-life story of a
little girl in the Florida cracker country. Other titles in the
series:
Judy's Journey
Prairie School
Coal Camp Girl
A charming legend about a stable boy
who rises to prominence.
Exciting story set in pioneer days in
Indiana about the adventures of Susannah and her cow. Another
fanciful pioneer story:
Caroline and Her Kettle Named Maud
The thrill-packed island vacation of a
group of English children, with pirates and buried treasure. Sequels
are:
Swallowdale
Peter Duck
Winter Holiday
The Coot Club
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea
Secret Water
Missie Lee
The Picts and Martyrs
Great Northern
Excellent selection of favorite fairy
tales from the Household Stories of the Brothers Grimm, admirably
adapted for the young reader. Other titles in this series from Wanda
Gag:
More Tales from Grimm
Three Gay Tales from Grimm
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Amusing French-Canadian folk tales.
A fine collection of Christmas
miscellany.
Tall tales about such legendary heroes
as Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, and many others.
Eight-year-old Reizel presents a
charming view of a Jewish family in a village of Lithuania of two
generations ago.
A tender story of how the townspeople
of a Maine village open up their hearts to an orphan boy.
A little girl learns not to covet her
neighbor's possessions.
The daughter of a Zulu chief in South
Africa accompanies the men of her tribe on their yearly elephant
hunt. Sequels are:
Seven Grandmothers
Nomusa and the New Magic
The very funny story of Cody Capshaw, a
Tennessee mountain boy. Sequel is:
This Boy Cody and His Friends
A marvelous collection of Christmas
stories in verse.
Football for the beginning, combining
an exciting story with a handbook of plays and positions. The author
has another football story:
Nicky's Football Team
Humorous, witty folk tales from
Pakistan.
A group of children save the lives of
Jewish refugees in German-occupied France during World War II.
A fantastic professor takes off in one
balloon and lands on the other side of the world with twenty-one
balloons. A Newbery Medal winner.
The story of a little Negro boy, Ted,
and his white friend, Paul, shows that color is no barrier to
friendship among children.
The discovery by a little girl of a
secret passage.
The six children of the small Dutch
village of Shora set out to realize their dream of a stork on every
roof in Shora.
On a snowy day, two children leave food
for animals in the forest and then follow their tracks.
A modern classic tale of four of the
most wonderful animals—and most human—who ever lived: Mole Water
Rat, Badger, and Toad. (An edition of this classic with illustrations
by Arthur Rackham is available from Heritage Press.)
A pioneer story of twelve-year-old
Peter and his family, who live under imminent threat of attack by the
Indians.
Enjoyable story of some extraordinary
witches and two little girls.
“Four and twenty marvelous tales,
being one for each hour of the day.”
,
illustrated by Louis Darling. Morrow.
