e has been the aim in making the BOOKSHELF.

THE PLAN AND SCOPE

The BOOKSHELF begins with the dawn of intelligence in the child, and
goes with him through the morning of childhood, and into the noonday of
youth. It contains a complete stock of finger-plays, action-plays,
lullabies, and other entertaining and educational material enjoyable to
babies and little children; it reaches into and through the high-school
age. In fact, the BOOKSHELF, with its valuable scientific and
natural-history material, its information about inventions and
industries, and its literary treasures, is an asset to the library even
of an adult.

The BOOKSHELF is classified. In some libraries material upon an
unrelated variety of subjects may be found within the covers of a single
volume. This feature has been tried and found wanting. It means that
when the reader is on the trail of a given subject he never knows where
to look for it, and he is likely to have to hunt through several volumes
before he learns what he wants to know. The argument for an unclassified
library is that the child who is reading a story may happen at the end
of that story upon an article containing valuable information, and thus
be lured on to read it. Children are not so easily beguiled. The mental
distinction of being, as it were, forced to spring from one theme to
another certainly counterbalances any supposed advantage in the
scrapbook arrangement. "A place for everything, and everything in its
place," is as true an adage and as necessary to remember and to practise
to-day as it ever was.

In addition to classifying the contents of the BOOKSHELF, the Editors
have graded the material. Any collection that is purchased for a home
and leaves out the needs of the children of any given age is
disappointing to that home. There is also a Graded Index, which is an
enlargement upon the general plan.

On the very day of its birth a baby enters the child's garden of life.
In this beautiful place there are weeds as well as flowers, and father
and mother must guide the little adventurer so that only the good
flowers are developed, while the weeds are held in check and the
poisonous plants torn up and destroyed. Earnest parents feel this
responsibility very keenly. In "Fun and Thought for Little Folk" there
is a well-selected collection of jingles, stories, and play exercises
for babies up to about three or four years of age. It covers the
earliest informal education of a chi