HAWKES, CLARENCE: _Shovelhorns: The Biography of a Moose_.
HOLDER, CHARLES F.: _Stories of Animal Life_.
INGERSOLL, ERNEST: _Wild Life of Orchard and Field_.
MILLER, ELLEN R.: _Butterfly and Moth Book_.
MORLEY, MARGARET W.: _Butterflies and Bees_.
PORTER, GENE STRATTON: _Moths of the Limberlost_.
PORTER, JERMAIN G.: _Stars in Song and Legend_.
ROBERTS, CHARLES G. D.: _Earth’s Enigmas_; _Haunters of the Silences_; _Kindred of the Wild_; _Kings in Exile_.
THOMPSON, JEANETTE MAY: _Water Wonders Every Child Should Know_.
STORY-TELLING IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE AND MANUAL TRAINING
People are likely to smile when a story-telling enthusiast suggests that his art will intensify the interest in manual training and domestic science, but a little investigation usually convinces them that this contention is not merely a wild theory. Cooking and sewing and wood, metal, and leather working each has an interesting story, and through understanding how these crafts originated and how they have developed with the progress of the race, he comes to have an appreciation of their true dignity and value. In a broad sense these tales belong to the field of history and geography, for domestic science and manual training have a background in history and present-day geography. But since the school gives them as separate subjects, a consideration of story materials touching them will be valuable to teachers of these subjects.
It is a far cry from the first roast meat of primitive man, discovered by accident to be more delectable than that untouched by heat, to the banquet of the twentieth-century gourmet, but they are chapters of the same tale, each intervening portion of which is interesting. There seems to be no relation between the grass skirt of the prehistoric belle and the creations of Worth or Paquin, but they are links in the same chain, beads strung upon the same thread, as are the rush mats of the cave woman and the rugs of Teheran. There are dozens of stories to give to girls that will increase their interest and delight in household crafts. Tales of the lace makers of Italy and Spain, of medieval tapestry weavers, of dower chests of European peasant maids, the contents of which pass from generation to generation, of royal costumers and court tailors, their problems, patience, and artistry, all tend to give a touch of romance to something many girls are inclined to hold in contempt. They enjoy hearing about cookery in foreign lands, of ways of serving meals that are very different from our own, and no one is more amused by Lamb’s “Dissertation on Roast Pig” than she who deals with problems of roasting and baking.