Mary's Rainbow

Feehan, Mary Edward, 1878-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.2

Word count: 175K words
Chapters: 18

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.Mary's Rainbow by Mary Edward FeehanAuthor: Feehan, Mary Edward, 1878-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Dec 26, 2006

Editor's review

Mary's Rainbow is an English-language children's literary work by Mary Edward Feehan, classified under young adult literature and released free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Judging by the title and category, the work centers on a protagonist named Mary and uses the image of the rainbow to link the story, with an overall warm, bright coming-of-age tone suited to children and young adults. As an early public-domain children's book, its language is relatively plain and its plot advances directly, carrying the didacticism and idealization common to children's literature of its era; readers can enjoy the simple narrative pleasure and also observe the writing style of early English children's books. The book is short, a lightweight choice for reading original English. Since the Gutenberg edition lacks illustrations and an introduction, parents or teachers should supplement background explanations to help young readers understand the period context. Overall, it suits documentary reading of English children's literature rather than being a first choice among contemporary children's books.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Parents who want their children to try original English children's books
Teachers in children's literature or English teaching who need public-domain texts
Readers interested in the landscape of early English children's literature
Learners with intermediate English who want to start with short stories

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking novel narratives and illustrated experiences in contemporary children's literature
Young children with weak English who need sentence-by-sentence notes
Adult literature readers who prefer complex plots and deep themes

Reading tips

When reading together, parents can first explain the gist, then let the child read chapters independently to reduce comprehension pressure.
After each chapter, retell the plot in one or two sentences, practicing both comprehension and English summarizing.
Discuss the protagonist's emotional changes through the rainbow image, extending reading into simple conversation.
Teachers can excerpt passages for classroom reading aloud, with period background, to avoid reading out of context.

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

What age of child is this book for?

Judging by category and length, it is children's literature, but the original is in English with no illustrations or notes, so it suits upper-primary children with some English reading foundation, or younger children reading with a parent.

Why is it said to have characteristics of early children's literature?

Such public-domain children's books were written earlier; the narrative is direct, the language plain, and they often carry clear moral instruction and idealization, differing markedly from contemporary children's literature in pace and outlook—useful as a comparative sample.

Does the Gutenberg edition have illustrations?

Project Gutenberg mainly provides electronic texts; this edition usually does not include the original illustrations and its layout is plain. For a richly illustrated experience, seek other editions or supplementary materials.

Comments

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About the author

Feehan, Mary Edward, 1878- Author · 1878

Mary Edward Feehan (born 1878) was an English-language author active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; her life and nationality remain poorly documented in publicly available sources and require further verification. Existing records show that she wrote at least two works, Mostly Mary and Mary's Rainbow. Both titles center on the name "Mary," suggesting that her writing may revolve around a character of that name or draw on autobiographical material, with themes leaning toward personal experience and everyday observation. Her style appears plain and approachable, with attention to emotion and detail. Given the small number of works and the scattered information about her, her place in literary history is limited; her primary value lies in offering a concrete, modest example of women's writing and life records of her era. A fuller understanding of her work would require reading the original books.