The Cinder Pond

Carroll Watson Rankin (Caroline Clement Watson Rankin)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 276K words
Chapters: 28

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 Cinder Pond by Carroll Watson RankinAuthor: Rankin, Carroll Watson, 1870-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 15, 2011

Editor's review

The Cinder Pond is a juvenile literature work by Carroll Watson Rankin, part of the Project Gutenberg free ebook collection. The novel centers on adolescent growth, with a plot built around family and friendship, written in accessible, fluent prose that suits English learners as extracurricular reading. As a public-domain ebook, it is free and easy to obtain and can be read on various devices. Though the author is not widely known, the work itself has the typical features of early juvenile fiction and helps readers understand English children's literature of the early twentieth century. When reading, pay attention to dialogue and everyday scene descriptions to sense the atmosphere of that era. For readers who want low-cost access to original English novels, this is a good choice.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate English learners who want free original English books for reading practice
Readers interested in early twentieth-century juvenile coming-of-age novels
Readers who need light English reading for fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plot or modern narrative pacing
Readers looking for deep literary classics
Beginners with weak English who need Chinese annotations

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide between intensive and extensive reading
Mark unfamiliar words first and look them up together after finishing a passage
Use an audiobook or text-to-speech software to listen and read simultaneously

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 English beginners?

Not really for complete beginners. It is an original English juvenile novel; the sentences are not complex, but a certain vocabulary is still required. It is better to try after reaching an intermediate reading level, or to look up words while reading.

Why is this book free on Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg provides ebooks whose copyright has entered the public domain. The Cinder Pond, by Carroll Watson Rankin, and the work itself are in the public domain, so it can be freely accessed and read.

Do I need to know the author's background to read this book?

Not necessarily. The work stands on its own, so you can read it directly. If you want to understand the context of early twentieth-century American juvenile literature, you can briefly look up period materials, but it does not affect understanding the story.

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About the author

Carroll Watson Rankin (Caroline Clement Watson Rankin) Author · American · 1864–1945

Carroll Watson Rankin (Caroline Clement Watson Rankin) was an American woman writer, born in Marquette, Michigan, in 1864 and died in 1945. Public information about her life is limited, and her literary reputation rests mainly on novels about girls' coming of age. Her best-known work, Dandelion Cottage (1904), is regarded as a classic of Midwestern children's literature, centering on the daily lives and adventures of a group of girls in a gentle, delicate style. She also wrote The Cinder Pond, The Adopting of Rosa Marie, The Castaways of Pete's Patch, and Girls of Highland Hall, five of which are held in the collection. These novels usually follow girls' friendships, families, and growth, with a fresh, plain style and careful attention to character, earning her a place in early twentieth-century American children's literature.