The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys

Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
332K words
Chapters
34

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Suspense ThrillerNatural WondersAdventure PuzzleFriendship TeamworkCuriosityComing of AgeLight ReadingAmerican SceneParent-Child ReadingBoyhood Adventure

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.The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys by GarisAuthor: Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jan 12, 2012

Editor's review

Howard Roger Garis was a prolific children's author of the early twentieth century. This book tells the adventure of two boys in pursuit of the white crystals and is a typical boys' adventure story. The pace is brisk, the plot driven by discovery, pursuit and puzzle-solving, and the language plain, making it suitable for building young readers' patience and imagination. Its depiction of companionship and the spirit of exploration is what still makes it worth reading today. As a public-domain ebook, it works best as an entry point to reading in the original English rather than as a choice for readers seeking literary depth. While reading, note how the two boys divide tasks and interact, observe the narrative conventions of early boys' adventure stories, and compare it with similar works of the same period to see how tastes in children's literature changed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read chapter by chapter and summarize the plot in one sentence after each chapter to practice summarizing in English.
  2. Pick out the two boys' dialogue and read it aloud to get a feel for the language style of early children's literature.
  3. After finishing, compare it with a contemporary boys' adventure story and write down three similarities and differences.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34

FAQ

What age is this book suitable for? Judging by subject matter and language difficulty, it suits upper-primary to junior-secondary students with some English foundation. The decision still depends on the child's vocabulary and reading habits; try one chapter first.
What do the white crystals in the story refer to? The materials provided do not give specific plot details, so it is best not to speculate. Read the original and let the mystery unfold as the two boys' adventure proceeds, which preserves the suspense.
As an English original, does it contain many unfamiliar words? The book is aimed at young readers and the language is generally plain, but it was written long ago and some expressions differ from modern English. Keep a dictionary at hand, or read a simplified version first to get familiar with the plot.

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About the author

Garis, Howard Roger, 1873-1962 Author

Howard Roger Garis (1873–1962) was an American author of children's literature. Little is publicly documented about his life, and reliable biographical information remains limited. The library holds 39 of his works, mainly animal stories and adventure novels for young readers. He is best known for the Uncle Wiggily series, including Uncle Wiggily's Adventures, Uncle Wiggily in the Woods, Uncle Wiggily's Travels, Uncle Wiggily's Auto Sled, and Uncle Wiggily's Squirt Gun, which feature an anthropomorphic rabbit and are marked by light, humorous plots suited to younger children. Other works, such as Dick Hamilton's Touring Car, tell lively stories of a young millionaire's motoring adventures. His sizable output gave him a modest place in early twentieth-century American children's publishing.