by Laurel | December 23rd, 2011
22 December 1897
1897 Cover of the Holyoke School Children's Christmas Annual
The Christmas annual of the Holyoke Public Schools has just been issued by Griffith, Axtel & Cady, and as the title page says, it is a budget of Christmas stories by reals girls and boys. The book is well printed, with a neatly designed cover by W. C. Chadwick of the senior class in the high school. The preface is by Superintendent Search. He says that it has proved a fine exercise in English and that the stories selected for the book are the best out of about 5000 that were written by the school children Wednesday, December 8. All the grades above the first contributed and out of those written in each room three or four were chosen and sent to a committee of the high school teachers, who selected the best 100 or more, taking one from each room when they were deemed good enough and in several there was more than one story selected. The children have acquitted themselves well and there are some really fine stories in the book. The lower grades contributed short stories of 100 words or so,and the other grades wrote longer stories. The book is illustrated by photoengravings of classic paintings and other pictures that have come to the notice of Superintendent Search. Each pupil contributed a Christmas greeting and a good selection was made of these to introduce the reader to the work. William Chadwick designed the head pieces of all the chapters and the work shows a good taste and a varied skill. It will pay the parents of the children to read over the stories as they have been presented, and they will find it a very credible book for school children to produce on the short notice that was given.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican, cover image from book in my personal collection.
