When I Was Your Age

Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe, 1850-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 177K 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.When I was your age by Laura Elizabeth Howe RichardsAuthor: Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe, 1850-1943,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 4, 2018

Editor's review

This work comes from the American children's author Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards and unfolds in the voice of an elder recounting past events to a child, carrying a memoir-like warmth and a flavor of family education. Its value lies not in tense or exciting plot but in conveying the details of nineteenth-century New England life, family ethics, and experiences of growing up to young readers through gentle narration; the language is clear, and the length suits reading in segments. For readers studying the history of American children's literature or nineteenth-century social life, this book offers a concrete and affective textual sample; for general readers, it is more like a collection of grandparental stories to leaf through slowly at the bedside. Because it is a public-domain e-book, the barrier to reading is low, making it suitable as introductory material for light reading of English originals. It should be noted that the language and historical background of the book are distant from the present, and some values require readers to judge for themselves; it should not be treated as a direct model for contemporary children's education. It is advisable to read it as a historical text, appreciating both its narrative warmth and its temporal limitations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American family life and children's literature
Learners who wish to do light reading of English originals and prefer short narratives
Students and teachers studying public-domain children's literature or American literary history
General readers who enjoy elders' oral reminiscences and memoir-style writing

Not a good fit for

Young readers seeking strong plot and fast pacing
Parents hoping to obtain practical methods for contemporary children's education
Beginners with weak English foundations who cannot yet read English originals independently

Reading tips

Read in segments by chapter; after each segment, briefly retell the core events the elder recounts.
Keep a notebook to record vocabulary and scenes that reflect nineteenth-century life details in the book.
Read alongside American children's literature of the same period to observe similarities and differences in narrative voice and values.
If using it for English study, first read through for the general meaning, then return to close-read dialogue and descriptive passages.

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 as a bedtime story for children?

It can be, but parents should screen it first. The narration is gentle and the length is not long, so it suits reading in segments; however, the language has features of nineteenth-century English, and some values differ from contemporary ones. Parents are advised to offer simple explanations while reading and to treat it as a historical story rather than a behavioral model.

What is the approximate English difficulty level?

Overall, it is moderately easy narrative English with uncomplicated sentence structures, but it contains many period words and regional expressions. Readers with a high-school English reading foundation who are used to reading original short pieces can try it; there is no need to look up every unfamiliar word—grasping the general meaning of a paragraph first is more effective.

What is the relationship between this book and the author's other works?

The materials do not provide information about the author's other works, so comparison among works is not possible. What can be confirmed is that this book belongs to the author's narrative writing for young readers. If you are interested in the style, you may consult other entries by the same author in public-domain catalogs.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe, 1850-1943 Author

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (1850–1943) was an American writer of children's literature and biography. Public information is limited, and few details of her life are recorded here, yet her work offers a clear sense of her range. She wrote children's stories such as Captain January and Toto's Merry Winter, told in a bright, warm style suited to young readers, and also produced biographical writing, including Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, which traces a life and its era. The collection holds 45 of her works, spanning children's fiction and biography, with historical portraits such as Abigail Adams and Her Times, showing a writer who combined popular narrative with careful attention to historical sources.