This book is intended chiefly for the home. It is an aid to parents in introducing their children to some of the best stories in the world. It will be of obvious value also to Sunday-school teachers, ministers who preach to children, public-school teachers, kindergartners, librarians, and to all who perceive that the story method is the golden method of teaching.

“Where can I find suitable stories to tell?” is a frequent question asked by lovers of children who take seriously their cry of soul-hunger, “Tell me a story!” Oral story-telling within recent years has had a remarkable revival, and a response to both the child’s and the parent’s plea has been made in a number of charming collections of children’s stories and manuals on the art of story-telling. But it is well known that books of stories with material in a form readily adapted for telling are very few. Fewer still have attempted to gather into one volume those old favorites which should be the heritage of each succeeding generation of children. True, there are collections in many volumes, such as “The Children’s Hour,” in ten volumes; the “Junior Classics,” in ten volumes; and the series, “What Every Child Should Know,” in twenty volumes; but these, admirable in many respects, are bulky, expensive, and forbidden to all except the favored children of the rich. Mothers frequently ask for something condensed, comprehensive, and simple. It is to meet such a need, often expressed to him, that the author has gathered, during a number of years of experience in moral and religious education, these World Stories for telling to modern boys and girls.

Almost all of the many stories in this book he has himself told at various times before differing audiences of children, young people, and adults—audiences varying from one or two open-eyed listeners in the home, or the little group in the country Sunday-school or wayside schoolhouse, to the large classes and assemblies in high schools, colleges, city libraries, Sunday-schools, churches, and conventions. In many cases children and young people have retold these stories in almost the exact language here given.

The principle on which these stories have been adapted and rewritten is largely that of condensation. There is undoubtedly a certain cultural atmosphere created in the very language and spirit of these fine old tales, but the descriptive adornments often lead to a length that is unattractive to the busy mother or teacher, as well as trying to the strength of mind and memory of the child. Given the real facts, illustrating the moral principle desired to be imparted, the story-teller may elaborate as much as imagination, interest, and time permit. After such an early introduction in childhood to these stories that for unnumbered generations have furnished food to mind, memory, heart, and will, the boy and girl will experience a keener joy in after years when the fuller versions are read in the original or in larger books.

In the preparation of these pages, the author has been favored with the generous counsel, aid, and encouragement of specialists in child psychology, pedagogy, and story-telling, among whom mention must be made especially of Dr. Richard Morse Hodge, of Columbia University, one of whose articles printed in “Religious Education” suggested this work; Dr. Henry F. Cope, Secretary of the Religious Education Association; John L. Alexander, Secondary Division Superintendent of the International Sunday School Association; and my friend, Dr. Irving E. Miller, of Rochester University, and author of “The Psychology of Thinking.” To these, as well as to a host of teachers and principals of public schools, pastors and superintendents in churches, and mothers and fathers in homes, who so graciously permitted experimentation with these stories, gratitude is sincerely expressed.

William J. Sly.

University Park, Denver, Colo.