Reviews

Elson Readers

I've been eagerly anticipating the republication of the Elson Readers series, originally published around 1920. The publishers, Lost Classics Book Company, have revived other popular late 19th and early 20th century resources such as Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, both by Emma Serl. I believed that the Elson Readers would fill a need for homeschoolers looking for an alternative to the readers currently on the market.
 
I recently received a set of the readers and teacher's guides to review and feel they've been well worth the wait. The readers, Primer through the 8th-grade level, are engaging and comprehensive. While the lower levels use abridged versions of literature to ease children into reading quality literature, the higher levels incorporate unabridged literature by time-honored writers and poets such as Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Emerson, Tennyson, Poe, Dickens, Longfellow, Kipling, and many, many others.
 
Many of the stories are related to history, science, and nature themes. Others focus on poetry, adventure, folk tales, fairy tales, and fables. Although there are some Bible stories included as literature, there is no specific religious slant to the books. A moral and patriotic theme runs throughout the series, emphasizing the roots of our country and our literature.
 
Each reader is divided into specific themes. In Book One, for example, there are sections for modern stories, fables, our country and its festivals, and folk tales. Book Four contains sections that focus on our country, fairy tales and adventures, nature, famous heroes, and great American authors. Book Eight centers around nature, adventure, American values (freedom, free government, citizenship, and service), and American life and literature.

In the Primer through Book Two, exercises for the stories are included in the teacher's guides. In Book Three and Four, study questions and exercises are added at the end of the book. Beginning in Book Five, an author biography and discussion questions follow each story and poem.

My curious nine-year-old picked up Book Four the other day and asked me what it was. I explained that it was a reader, containing stories collected specifically for fourth-graders. He asked if he could read it, and I haven't been able to get it back since. All it took was the promise by the author to whisk him away "to scenes in far off India or frozen Russia or the campfire of Indians" and tell him stories about "great men such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and…a little gray pigeon that saved hundreds of brave American soldiers in World War I" and to adventures where he would "meet funny people and still funnier animals" until he "laughed with the joy of it all." The author then went on to explain that he would read about heroes such as Beowulf and visit famous American authors that helped the world see America as the land of freedom. How could my son resist?
 
The various teacher's guides contain extras such as phonics lessons and story exercises (in the early books), answers to the discussion questions included in Book Three through Book Eight, vocabulary worksheets, evaluation charts, comprehension questions, essay prompts, poetry worksheets, discussion of literary elements and characterization, author comparisons, suggested activities and websites, and more. In my opinion, the extra biographies and discussion of literary elements in Book Five and up (in conjunction with the corresponding teacher's guides) would enhance the Literature component of any English course.
 
If you're looking for an alternative to other readers on the market, I don't think you'd be disappointed with this series. My son sure isn't. Even if you feel your children are too old for readers, you may want to consider incorporating one of these books into their literary diet in order to expose them to genres and authors they wouldn't ordinarily choose for themselves. If you want the answers to the discussion questions in Books Three through Eight, plus help with literary elements and essay prompts in the higher levels, be sure to purchase the corresponding teacher's guide as well.
 
To view a sample of each level of the series or the teacher's guides, go to the Lost Classics Book Company website, then scroll down the main page for a link to the series, or click on "readers" in the left-hand navigation bar.