Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe

Title Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe
Author Frank George Carpenter
Publisher American Book Co., 1912
Length 456 pages
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This book aims to give the children a plain and simple description of the countries of Europe as they are to-day. The method is by taking the little ones on a personally conducted tour over the continent. It is the children themselves who cross the Atlantic Ocean, steam over the Baltic and the Mediterranean seas and down the historic Rhine and the Danube. It is they who climb the Alps and stand on the North Cape watching the sun shine at midnight. It is they who go from city to city, from farm to farm, and factory to factory, seeing how the various peoples live and what they are doing in the work of the world. It is they who are admitted to the palaces, parliaments, and public offices where they learn how each nation is governed and something as to its civilization, commerce, and trade.

It is not intended that these travels should take the place of the school geographies, but that they should be used with such books as supplementary reading. As in the volumes describing similar tours in North America, South America, and Asia, the text-books on geography may be regarded as the skeleton and this reader as the flesh and blood which will clothe the dry bones and make the countries a living whole in the minds of the pupils.

A glance at the table of contents will give some idea of the scope and character of the work. The children, having crossed the Atlantic on one of the big ocean greyhounds, begin their tour in the United Kingdom. landing at Queenstown, they explore Ireland, visiting Cork, Killarney, Limerick, and Galway. They cross the bog lands and plains to Dublin, and thence go to the Giant's Causeway and Belfast, where they learn how linen is made. From Belfast, they sail to Glasgow, and after spending a while in the Lowlands or Industrial Scotland go to Edinburgh by the Trossachs. They make a hunting trip to the Highlands, and visit the homes of Robert Burns and Walter Scott before crossing the border to England...