McGuffey's Eclectic Readers - Complete Set

McGuffey's Primer #7

by William Holmes McGuffey

Filled with happy tales, good morals, and a systematic approach to teaching reading, it is clear why McGuffey's Readers have been among the most loved and most used books in American history. McGuffey's Primer starts out with the basics of the alphabet and gradually builds up the phonics skills and sight word recognition until the child is reading full paragraphs and narratives. Readers 1 - 6 build upon this approach and take the young learner step by step until they are reading works from some of the greatest minds and writers in history. The strength of these Readers is in its sequential gradation of skills. Its beauty is in its timeless stories.

Note - this Kindle version of McGuffey's Readers contains all of the original illustrations and formatting that are in the printed books. Comments below that say otherwise are referring to a different Kindle edition of this book.

Genres: Education, Classics, Childrens, Parenting, School, Reference, Nonfiction

1829 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1836

About the author

William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.

Reviews

[Laurie Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these books from a historical viewpoint. While I was an education major in college, I was taught that the students of the one room school house received a poor education as compared to the modern day.
That never made sense to me. In the Laura Ingalls Wilder storybooks, she shares about her school lessons with these books. When she writes of her teenage years in Little Town on the Prairie. it is astounding what she and her classmates achieved, in part from these books.
My own grandparents attended a one room school house in the early 20th century Pennsylvania, but no one ever found their education lacking, despite not going past the 8th grade.
My parents even had a better education than me, even though I was on a college track, but they weren't.
From that perspective, reading these books proved that they had more depth and morals than typically given credit.
These books were written for students who were not able to receive a private (classical studies) education, which is even deeper than what these books provide.

[Adam Bloch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently learned that these readers used to be the American education standard, so I found the ones I could for free. I didn’t actually read this collection, but it’s close: I read the primer, the first, the third, and the fifth readers. For the most part, they are excellent and teach good values. A couple of the stories, however, could not survive in today’s culture because they are a product of their time, but aside from just a few sentences, these volumes would be beneficial to young readers.
I took so long reading (listening to the ones on Audible Plus, at least) because I would listen to a few stories here and there in between other books I read this year.

[Grant]

Good God, these were the bane of my existence

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally taught my kids to read with this book during pandemic lockdown.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you only have enough money for one source of teaching your child how to read this was good enough for everyone from the 1800s and it's still valuable today.

[Samantha Ellsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My great-grandmother bought these for me when I was really young. She sat with me, and I learned to read with these books (and many, many others). I still like remembering how it was increasingly difficult within each book as well as moving on to the next book. My children now are still interested in the books, they are fascinated by the fact mom learned to read from them.

[Kymberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is such a good set. The kids even like them. They think the old english is so funny. They quit guessing and started reading.

[Jorgina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read numerous times through the different ages of my last three children. 1997-2010. Wonderful stories, long forgotten poetry, both of which have beautiful prose and reaffirming life lessons.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun for nostalgia's sake and I like the moral lessons in them. But not the easiest format or font to use.