Child-Land

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 56K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Child-Land by Oscar Pletsch and M. RichterAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Aug 1, 2008

Editor's review

Child-Land is by Oscar Pletsch and M. Richter, released free by Project Gutenberg and classified as juvenile literature. Judging from the authors and the title, it is a work for children presented through pictures, short pieces, or both, with the feel of a nineteenth-century children's book. For today's readers its value is mainly documentary and aesthetic: it shows how early children's publications were organized and how they addressed children, and serves as a primary source for the era's view of childhood. It is short and works well as an aid for parent-child reading or for research in children's literature. Note that the available information gives no details about individual pieces or illustrations, so readers should not expect a modern picture-book narrative; it is better treated as a period sample to browse freely.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century children's books
Students of children's literature or publishing history
Parents looking for short English material to read with children
Collectors who enjoy old-style illustrations and classic childhood charm

Not a good fit for

Parents looking for modern picture books or complete bedtime stories
Young children who need a Chinese translation
Readers expecting a long, coherent story with vivid characters

Reading tips

There is no need to read it straight through; browse at random and get a feel for the rhythm of old children's books.
When reading with a child, talk about the pictures first, then have the adult briefly explain the text.
Researchers can note the language style and images of childhood as period material.
If English is difficult, focus on short sentences and titles to get the overall picture.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for children to read directly?

The text is in English and carries the conventions of nineteenth-century children's books, so independent reading will be hard for young children. It is better for parents to read first and then introduce it through telling or talking about pictures; if a child already has some English, you can try reading short sentences together.

Does the book have illustrations?

The available information only names Oscar Pletsch and M. Richter as authors and classifies the book as juvenile literature; it does not describe the illustrations. Pletsch was associated with children's picture-making, but the actual ratio of pictures to text in this book should be checked in the ebook itself.

Why is it said to have documentary value?

Because it is an early children's book preserved digitally by Project Gutenberg. Readers can observe the language, subjects, and view of childhood of the time; such material matters more to those interested in the history of children's literature and publishing than to general readers seeking entertainment.

Comments

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About the author

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Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.