Put Some Good Old Books in the Hands of Today’s Young Readers!
Stories of Heroes & Adventures ~ Education That’s Fun!
Already homeschooling? Schooling at home by virtue of quarantine? (Desperate?) Or looking for quality reading to supplement the regular school year, public or private? Or summer break? How about books kids will read ~ real education that’s real entertainment. Does that sound like what you need?
Why not open a treasure chest, full of fantasy and fun, first-hand history, and first-rate heroes. You can introduce your young scholars to a selection of the most popular and influential juvenile-series stars who inspired the daydreams and aspirations of your kids’ youthful ancestors from a century past ~ from the 1890s to the 1960s. I’ll show you just how to do it, quick and easy.
Most of these are free online, so they are available right now for the right price. They are primary sources for exploring the history and culture of the late 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century.
In my upcoming book (to be out later this year) titled In Search of Yesterday’s Heroes, I detail a bunch of exciting recommendations for today’s young readers (and even nostalgic adults). But here and now, particularly in the spirit of quarantine, I point out a few opportunities to engage restless or even reluctant (or maybe even eager) young minds in entertainment that’s uniquely educational. You’re going undercover! They won’t even know what hit ’em.
Get Educationally Sneaky ~ Make It Fun!
Most of the following books are online, so your student can read on their (or your) device, or…you can make it a party! Have more than one kid to entertain and educate? These books appeal to a wide age range. Pull the book up on the computer or television screen and read it out loud together. Take turns reading, if that works. Read it to them, or have an older sibling do the honors, with style, if they’re dramatic. Discuss along the way or at the end. Look up pertinent subjects online (such as the Klondike Gold Rush). Pull up a map and trace the adventure (Maine, New York, Chicago, Panama Canal, California, Alaska, Yukon, train, ocean steamer, river raft). With these stories and the Internet, it’s pretty easy to get creative.
Three-Volume Bound to Succeed Series ~ Turn-of-the-Century Adventures
Three books comprise this series of the late 1800s written by the king of early 20th-Century juvenile publishing, Edward Stratemeyer. In my upcoming book, In Search of Yesterday’s Heroes, you will meet and get to know Ed, his books, his Syndicate, his ghostwriters, and all the background cultural history. But here are three of his early gems, all solid, G-rated adventure stories starring inspiring young fellows of high-school age. Ed was always “thoroughly modern, up to date.” These stories reflect the actual time they were written ~ first-hand history! And the favorite, modern stories of our ancestors.
NUMBER ONE ~ The 1899 revised edition of Richard Dare’s Venture, or Striking Out For Himself is a charming tale and a fascinating look at 1890s New York City. Archive.org gives you the complete, scanned hardback original with its beautiful illustrations and personal introduction from Ed, the next thing to holding the real book, in an easy, click-the-page format. It’s also available at Gutenberg.org, but I like Archive the best. Go to Archive.org, type in the book title, pull up the Library of Congress version, and enjoy. It’s an all-American story with a touch of Dickens. Here’s an excerpt from my own Heroes book:
His father recently killed, the 16-year-old Richard (Note: 16!) leaves a small-town home to venture his work ethic on his own in New York City, needing to provide for his distraught mother and siblings. Adventures begin as early as the train ride. He meets a number of people, both good and bad, including the classic urban urchin (called a “street Arab”) named Pep. Though defrauded by the young boy, the good-hearted and self-sacrificing Richard later digs out all of his 16 cents in change and offers it to the poor lad. In exchange for a promise never to steal again, Richard gives Pep six cents to buy something to eat (a penny was actually worth something then) and10 cents to buy papers to become a newsboy and “make a quarter.” I hope you will want to find out who Pep really is and what happens to him. And to Richard. [from In Search of Yesterday’s Heroes]
NUMBER TWO ~ Oliver Bright’s Search, or The Mystery of a Mine is a current-day chronicle of 1890s Up-State New York, New York City, steamer travel, Panama before the canal, San Francisco, and the gold mines of the Sacramento region 40 years after the gold rush. Oliver is “just out of school” ~ probably 16 ~ and looking forward to college. He is “in every respect, an up-to-date boy” whose widowed and invalid father has been defrauded of a large amount of money over a mine in California. To keep the family home and settle debts, Oliver must strike out by train and steamer to Panama and San Francisco and then by horseback to the gold fields to set things right. I ordered my original, hardback copy courtesy of used.addall.com. The site represents a world (literally) of used and vintage book sellers, all in one place. You have your pick and most books are remarkably inexpensive. Oliver is also online at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008982544&view=1up&seq=16.
To Alaska & the Canadian Yukon for Gold!
NUMBER THREE ~ To Alaska for Gold, or The Fortune Hunters of the Yukon is peeled right off the pages of Ed’s daily, late-1890s newspapers, pulled from tedious government reports, and personalized by leading “Alaska authorities” and gold rush participants. We today get to experience a 120-year-old adventure, while Ed’s young, turn-of-the-century readers reveled in a thrilling, current event. The heroes of our story are Earl (18) and Randolph (Randy) Portney (17), the homeschooled sons of lumbering parents in backwoods Maine. How they end up in the Klondike with their uncle and the gold-rushers is quite an adventure. My favorite online scan is at https://archive.org/details/toalaskaforgoldo00strarich/page/n7/mode/2up, the California Digital Library version.
A Fantastic and Disarming Study of World War I (the Great War) and Early Aviation
Consider the following, fabulous “sneak attack” available to parents and teachers. Three volumes of The Motor Boys (infantry) and all six volumes of The Air Service Boys (young Americans in the French air force) provide an entertaining and “undercover” way of treating young readers to an introductory study of World War I, all written during and immediately following the actual events. All nine books are free online, and your young students won’t even realize they are studying. The characters and stories are great, even for an adult. Not only do you read about this sorely neglected but vital event from a current perspective, but you also get an enticing springboard for further exploration of some fascinating subjects. It worked on me.
My own In Search of Yesterday’s Heroes (written and in production) details the series, the books, the writers, and all the cultural history. Meanwhile, just go to Gutenberg.org or Archive.org and get Volumes 19, 20, and 21 of The Motor Boys, concepted and outlined by Ed, written by Howard Garis, and all six volumes of The Air Service Boys, outlined by Ed, written by ghostwriters St. George Henry Rathborne (Volumes 1, 2, 5, 6) and Howard Garis (Volumes 3, 4). The only “heads up” is that each series has one, rather mild instance of a service show featuring a bit of classic blackface vaudeville. Just treat it as an educational opportunity. It was part of the cultural history.
Now, mix in the two war volumes from Ed’s own Dave Porter series about young civil engineers who, in Volumes 14 and 15, join the fighting engineers of the U.S. Army in the spring of 1917. Dave Porter Under Fire, or A Young Army Engineer in France is at Google Books and HathiTrust. Dave Porter’s War Honors, or At the Front with the Fighting Engineers is at Archive.org.
Then, especially for the girls, add four stories from Stratemeyer’s most popular group series and the top choice of girl junior-high readers in 1929, The Outdoor Girls, Volumes 8, 9, 10, and 11, In Army Service, Hostess House, Bluff Point, and Wild Rose Lodge, published 1918 to 1921, during and right after the War. Girls on the home front work for the Red Cross, raise money for the war effort, run a hostess house, send boyfriends and future husbands off to Europe, endure alarming news, and finally welcome home their heroes. All four are free online at Gutenberg.
Now you are really cookin’ with WWI and that ought to keep the scholars busy for a while. Have a great time!
[Click the Juvenile Series Category on the Sidebar to find my reviews of two economics adventures for kids ~ the Under the Staircase Series. Econ for kids?! Yes! And stay tuned. More recommendations and ideas to come!]