Books for the Young
Great mistakes have been made in writing books for children. When Sir Walter Scott was about to write his Tales of a Grandfather, he remarked: “I am persuaded both children and the lower class of readers hate books which are written down to their capacity, and love those that are composed for their elders and betters. I will make, if possible, a book that a child shall understand, yet a man should feel some temptation to peruse should he chance to take it up.... The grand and interesting consists in ideas, not in words.” Again, “the problem of narrating history is at once to excite and gratify the curiosity of youth, and please and instruct the wisest of mature minds.”82
Notes
82. Lockhart’s Life of Scott.