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Does the name William Harris Elson ring a bell? If so, you probably remember him for his Fun with Dick and Jane readers. However, earlier in his career, he created this reading series, which first appeared in 1909. This series has been reprinted from the 1920 edition of the Elson readers, with the original format, layout, study questions, and illustrations retained. The only updating you’ll find here is in some of the text, which has been updated and edited “only where necessary” in terms of spelling and punctuation. All poetry has been untouched, and the end result of the book is an edition very faithful to the original. Like other readers from the time period, the selections will be more advanced than we are used to seeing in similarly-graded editions of today, but whatever difficulty may be encountered in reading is more than made up for in the quality reading selections, many by great authors. Where else can you be introduced to pieces by Davy Crockett, John James Audobon, Sir Walter Scott, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ralph Waldo Emerson at this level? The selections also tend to focus on our country, nature, U.S. and world history, classic literature, the Bible, biographies of great men, classic fairy tales and adventure stories, and more. Readers for grades seven and eight incorporate more “classic” American literature, from well-known authors. The overall flavor is a very patriotic, conservative, academic feel that lovers of history and great literature are sure to appreciate. Selections include a mix of prose and poetry, and longer selections are often divided into more manageable portions to retain comprehension. At the lower levels, reading selections feature folk tales, poems (including Mother Goose), and simple, wholesome stories.
