Primers and Readers
One of the most important components of the Lucile Clarke Memorial Children's Library is the collection of readers. For generations, readers have played a fundamental role in helping children learn their "letters." The earliest tools for teaching children to read were nothing more than the letters of the alphabet, mounted on a board.
Educators soon realized, however, that children learned best to read by reading words and sentences. As America's public education system strove to establish universal literacy and thus bought immense quantities of readers, publishers realized that the books were an immensely profitable venture.
Readers, however, were more than educational tools or profitable investments. The content of the books traditionally served moral purposes, helping to teach young children common social values. Nineteenth century readers often stressed moral principles explicitly or implicitly linked to religious beliefs. In the twentieth century readers continued to inculcate basic values into the minds of their young users, although often replacing overtly religious values with those of patriotism and civic virtue.
Whatever the message, the combination of a need and profit has led to a vast number of published readers, a large selection of which are preserved in the Clarke Library