Other Rhymes for Little Readers

Wilhelmina Seegmiller (1866–1913) was an early-20th century writer of primary readers, drawing books, and poetry for young readers.  Her “Rhymes for Little Readers” two-book series consists of Little Rhymes for Little Readers, (also available in digital formats here at Travelyn Publishing), originally published in 1903, and this book, Other Rhymes for Little Readers, originally published in 1911.  Both are designed to introduce youngsters to the wonders and delights of poetry without intimidating them. Each poem (there are sixty of them in each book) is short, written from a child’s perspective, deals with matters that kids generally find interesting, and rhymes (always important when writing for children... just ask Dr. Seuss).  Ms. Seegmiller included an afterword in “Little Rhymes for Little Readers” instructing teachers how to use these two books in the classroom.

Add to the aforementioned attributes dozens of drawings in each book—at least one per poem—by professional illustrator Ruth Mary Hallock and you have a powerful lure for the young mind.  What better gift for a child or grandchild could you possibly find, than a lifelong love of poetry?

Preparing old books for digital publication is a labor of love at Travelyn Publishing.  We hold our digital versions of public domain books up against any others with no fear of the comparison.  Our conversion work is meticulous, utilizing a process designed to eliminate errors, maximize reader enjoyment, and recreate as much as possible the atmosphere of the original book even as we are adding the navigation and formatting necessary for a good digital book.  While remaining faithful to a writer’s original words, and the spellings and usages of his era, we are not above correcting obvious mistakes.  If the printer became distracted after placing an ‘a’ at the end of a line and then placed another ‘a’ at the beginning of the next line (they used to do this stuff by hand you know!), what sort of mindless robots would allow that careless error to be preserved for all eternity in the digital version, too?  Not us.  That’s why we have the audacity to claim that our re-publications are often better than the originals.