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“The fine grade of religious books published by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, justifies more than a passing notice. This firm turns out yearly an immense number of books of the choicest quality, and at all prices to suit the needs of Sunday-schools throughout the land. It has been the aim of the publishers to employ none but the best writers for these books, realizing it a most important part of Church work to provide for the needs of this large class. Mingling intellectual strength with deep religious feeling, at the same time the publishers strive to make the books interesting and attractive. For an untold number of examples prove that children and youth will not read religious or moral teaching presented in a dry manner, and why should they? Full of life and vigor, and overflowing with intense energy in every part of their nature, these young people require something healthfully to inspire to this force within them. If they do not find it in the natural avenues of the Sunday-school or the town library, they will elsewhere, in questionable literature—an indulgence in which results in a feverish taste for excitement. To help these young people develop into strong men and women, D. Lothrop & Co. have put forth every effort, sparing no expense. A glance at their Catalogue will give an idea of what they have been doing in this department.”—The Messenger, Phila.
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Of Amanda B. Harris’ last work, the Advance says: “Pleasant Authors for Young Folks is a delightful little book. The name of its author is sufficient to attract many readers who have been pleased with her ’Wild Flowers’ and other books and sketches. These ‘Little Biographies’ of Walter Scott, Charles Lamb, Charles Kingsley, Dr. John Brown, George MacDonald, Dinah Mulock-Craik, John Ruskin, Charlotte Bronte and others, are made up of stories and incidents from the lives of these writers, bits of criticism and gems of extracts, put together as deftly and skilfully and making as fine and polished a whole as a Roman mosaic of the temple of Vesta. Such a delicious bit of a book as this in the hands of a boy or girl is worth more as an incitement to reading and an education of literary taste than many a library of a thousand volumes.”