Читать книгу Whirlaway: A Story of the Ages - H. C. F. Morant - Страница 3

Table of Contents

During the past thirty years the introduction of Nature Study into our schools and a widened and more realistic treatment of Geography have given school youngsters a different outlook upon the world around them. But so far there has been little effort to bring home to them the story of the Earth's past through the successive geological eras.

The children of to-day, not excluding children of an older growth, may be congratulated on having so fascinating a story as Whirlaway made for them out of material which many of us older folk, who learned a few scraps out of geological textbooks or encyclopaedias, found harsh and crabbed. The original verses which lighten the story throughout often introduce a background of humour and philosophy understandable by young folk.

In this tale there are no "Snarks" or "Boojums," "Guffer Birds" or "Pobbles," but only veritable creatures that lived and moved and ceased to be ages ago. It adds to the interest of the story that what is said and represented pictorially of those queer creatures is vouched for by high scientific authority.

Readers of this Story of the Ages should visit our museums with more eager curiosity and more intelligent appreciation. The book is an ideal one for the children's library, whether in the home or in the school.

FRANK TATE.

MELBOURNE,

10th April, 1936.