Read Rare Classic Children’s Books for Free at the Library of Congress
This is the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, and the Library of Congress is celebrating a free online collection of rare children’s books, first published over a century ago.
The 70-book collection includes books that children still read today, as well as lesser-known titles from the Library’s collection of historically significant children’s books. All books in the collection were published in the United States or England before 1924.
Some of them, which is worth to pay attention to include Goody of Two-Shoes , Baseball the ABC , Our Old Nursery Rhymes and of The Rocket Book , which begin:
When Fritz, the janitor’s bad guy,
I rummaged into the basement;
He found a rocket tightly hidden
Under the window sash.
He struck a match in one fell swoop;
Then on concrete knees
He lit the rocket and … she … oo!
He made his way through the ceiling.
Of course, one of the problems with classic children’s books is that they often feature storylines, imagery, gender roles, and a lack of racial diversity, which is offensive by today’s standards. But Maria Tatar, professor of folklore and mythology at Harvard, told The New York Times that reading these old books with our kids can be an opportunity to talk about who is represented and who is not.
In fact, even young children can have these conversations, she said, and it is part of an adult’s responsibility to make them happen in a way that is easy and comfortable for the child. “What could be better than a book once,” she said. “This is not here and now, this is a place where we can go in our imagination, we can think about what if.”
The library’s collection includes books that teach children to read and learn about various subjects such as mathematics, science, and government. There are also “funny” books of fiction, poetry and fairy tales.