"When all the world is fresh and new and the ancient art of storytelling seems most magical, boys and girls can most naturally acquire the habit of reading, which, once acquired, can never lose its power to delight and to inform," writes Orville Prescott in his introduction. And he believes that father, who usually spend less time with their children than mothers, can help bring this about by reading aloud. This rich and varied collection of stories and poems is uniquely suited for fathers to read to their children.

Here are ancient myths, stories about knights and heroes, both fanciful and realistic stories about animals, stories about Indians of the Old West and about Zulus in Africa. Because we live in a world crisis, Mr. Prescott has not hesitated to include stories that stress the danger and violence inherent in all life, human as well as animal. He believes that most children are surprisingly tough-minded. And there is poetry here, too, because a taste for poetry even more than for fiction is most easily acquired early.

Among the authors represented are Hans Christian Andersen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Padraic Colum, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Howard Pyle, Rudyard Kipling, P. L. Travers, Felix Salten, T. H. White, Charles Dickens, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Edward Lear, John Steinbeck, and O. Henry.

All of the selections represent the best that is available in literature, and all of them have been selected for the special pleasure of shared family reading.