R. M. Smith

The Confederate First Reader: Containing Selections in Prose and Poetry, As Reading Exercises for the Younger Children in the Schools and Families of the Confederate States R. M. Smith

This book has been compiled and prepared for the use of children who may have mastered the reading lessons of the spelling-book. It is more particularly designed as an immediate successor, in this respect, to the "Confederate Spelling Book," which has been so extensively adopted in the schools of the Confederate States. The pieces have been selected with a view to interest and instruct the pupils, and at the same time to elevate their ideas, form correct tastes, and instil proper sentiments. Whatever seems most desirable for these purposes, among the literary materials that have become public property, has been freely appropriated; suitable articles neither being rejected because familiar to adults, nor novelty sought for its own sake. At the same time, the selections have, by no means, been confined to the hackneyed list. It is believed that the exercises thus chosen, are well adapted to the capacity of those for whom they are designed, and will afford them much more real pleasure, as well as improvement, than the frivolous sentences which some suppose to be the best entertainment for juveniles.