"The World Before Me"

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

"The World Before Me"

During the holidays I derived much pleasure from looking through, and reading extracts from “The Children’s Encyclopaedia,” edited by Arthur Mee. Perhaps an encyclopedia does not sound a.s though it would provide particularly interesting holiday reading, but these volumes, edited by Arthur Mee, are really very interesting to read.

Let us turn over the pages of Volume 1 (there are 10 in the series). There are articles on almost every subject we could name. We are told of the great world we live on, and its wonderful inhabitants of nature. We are told of every famous person in history; we read poems by the master poets of the world; we see pictures of the famous paintings and statues of the world; we learn of people in other lands and how they live; we enter the golden realms of literature by means of beautiful extracts taken from the best authors.

Then we see wonderful illustrations of the work of Nature: the rushing waters of Niagara imprisoned in ice; the great deserts and mountains of faroff lands. There are fairy stories and nursery rhymes for the younger children and easy lessons in French for those who are still struggling with the verb “to be.” For the musically minded there are stories of the great men of music, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Mendelssohn. We may read stories of animals and flowers and trees. For the curious there are answers to the questions of the children of the world. Have you ever wondered why we have lines on our hands, or where the water goes at low- tide? Here you will find an answer to any question you like to ask.

There are pages of fine pictures from other lands. To look at them is almost as good as to visit ..them. Then for young scientists are interesting sections on Pasteur, Leyden, Newton, and other great men of science. We could turn oyer more pages and discover numerous subjects to interest us. Truly this marvellous encyclopaedia, edited by Arthur Mee, is full of everything from “shoes and ships and sealing wax” to “cabbages and kings.”— Original by “Annie Laurie” (15), Wellington.