Knock Three Times!

Webb, Marion St. John, -1930Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 288K words
Chapters: 29

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.Knock Three Times! by Marion St. John WebbAuthor: Webb, Marion St. John, -1930,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 28, 2014

Editor's review

This is a work of children's literature by Marion St. John Webb, belonging to the category of juvenile literature, and released as a free e-book by Project Gutenberg. Webb was active in the early twentieth century, and her works often carry a fairy-tale and fantastical flavor, skillfully embedding unexpected twists into everyday scenes. The title's "knock three times" is itself a suspenseful hook, suggesting the story revolves around a pact, a test, or a mysterious event. As a public-domain e-book, its value lies in offering readers a window into the landscape of early twentieth-century English children's literature: the language is relatively simple, and the plot advances through dialogue and action, making it suitable as introductory reading material in the original English. In terms of reading scenarios, it is suitable for parents to read aloud to children at bedtime, for English learners to use as a graded reader, or for enthusiasts studying early children's literature to consult as reference material. It should be noted that the book is in the original English and was written quite early, so some expressions and narrative pacing differ from contemporary children's books; readers would do well to approach it in the spirit of appreciating old-fashioned fairy tales.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Parents looking for English-language bedtime reading for their children
Intermediate English learners who want to practice reading with short stories
General readers interested in early twentieth-century children's literature
Teachers or reading enthusiasts in need of public-domain English text material

Not a good fit for

Readers who can only read Chinese and have no English foundation at all
Young readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced fantasy fiction
Academic researchers seeking detailed annotations or introductions

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then pick out dialogue passages for read-aloud practice.
When reading with children, parents can skip over old-fashioned expressions to keep the story flowing.
English learners can note three to five new words per chapter and review them after finishing.
If used in class, a discussion activity can be designed around the title to predict the plot.

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 in Chinese or English?

The book is in the original English, with the electronic text released by Project Gutenberg; there is no Chinese translation in the book. Chinese readers need some English reading ability, or must rely on dictionaries or translation tools to assist their reading.

What age of child is it suitable for?

As a work of early twentieth-century children's literature, its language difficulty and plot complexity are roughly suitable for children with basic English reading ability, as well as for parents willing to read along. The specific age varies with the child's English level; parents are advised to leaf through it first before deciding.

Why is the e-book free?

Project Gutenberg specializes in providing e-books that have entered the public domain. The author of this book died in 1930, and the work has entered the public domain in the United States and elsewhere, so it can be legally obtained and read for free.

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About the author

Webb, Marion St. John, -1930 Author · English

Marion St. John Webb (died 1930) was a British writer and illustrator of children's literature. Public information about her is limited, and the details of her life are now difficult to trace, yet she was known in the early twentieth century for her picture stories. Two of her works are held in this collection, Knock Three Times! and The Girls of Chequertrees, and other picture stories such as The Littlest One have also come down to us. She wrote mainly for young readers, and was skilled at pairing light narrative with illustrations to create a reading atmosphere close to a child's sense of fun; the interplay of pictures and text is a distinctive feature of her work. Her books held a place in the children's reading of her time and are still mentioned by scholars interested in early British children's literature.