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BY ADA MARIA SKINNER ST. AGATHA SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY AND LILLIAN NIXON LAWRENCE
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Copyright, 1913, BY ADA M. SKINNER AND LILLIAN N. LAWRENCE.
LITTLE DRAMAS FOR PRIMARY GRADES. W. P. I
The use of dramatic readers has passed beyond the experimental stage. Their value in arousing interest, in stirring the imagination, in quickening literary appreciation and power of interpretation, has been so clearly demonstrated as to make them permanent textbooks in the elementary schools, and more particularly in the primary grades. The present difficulty consists, therefore, not in uncertainty of the value of dramatic literature, but in the inadequacy of the supply. The need of suitable literary material in good dramatic form for the primary grades is still very great. This little book has been compiled as one step toward meeting this need at least in one particular school, but it is hoped that it may prove of service in many other schools. It is intended for use at the end of the first, and at the beginning of the second, year.
For permission to use copyright material in this volume, acknowledgments and thanks are proffered to authors and publishers, as follows:
To Laura E. Richards, for the adaptation from her story, “The New Year”; to Dodd, Mead & Co. for “Mabel and the Green Lizard,” adapted from “The Adventures of Mabel,” by H. T. Peck; to G. P. Putnam’s Sons, of New York and London, for the selection by Judge Parry from “The Golden Staircase”; to Longmans, Green, & Co. for “The Odd Man and the Dog True”; and to John Lane Company for “Return of Spring,” by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
THE MAIDEN AND THE BIRD _Lydia Maria Child_ 32
THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE _Adapted from an Old Story_ 60
THE NEW YEAR _Adapted from Laura E. 73 Richards_
THE BOASTFUL BAMBOO TREE _Japanese Fable_ 100
WHY THE JELLYFISH HAS NO SHELL _Oriental Fable_ 119
I WOULD LIKE YOU FOR A COMRADE _Judge Parry_ 132
SOUTHWEST WIND’S VISIT TO GLUCK _Adapted from John Ruskin_ 134