• 150+ Classic Books for Girls

    This list is pulled from One Thousand Books for Children by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens (1911). I liked this book in particular because it has a good range of genres, and the author includes small summaries of each book which makes it easy to decide on what to read. I thought it might be useful to create a link index based on this book, for readers who are interested in such things (like me!). So for this post, I’ve pulled lists of books from One Thousand Books for Children‘s “girl books” sections, as well as some from the non-fiction lists. I’ll…

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    Story: “A Tale for Halloween” by Loretta Ellen Brady (1920)

    This is a children’s Halloween story from the book The Green Forest Fairy Book by Loretta Ellen Brady, published in 1920! It’s a collection of fairy tales, similar to the Brothers Grimm sort of stuff. Enjoy! A Tale for Halloween Babette and Antone were the children of a very poor woodcutter. They lived in a little cottage on the side of a steep mountain, and the mountain looked upon a great forest. Now though their father toiled in this forest from dawn until dark, he could earn but little. Wood in that region was plentiful, and woodcutters were numerous. Their…

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    Poem: JOURNEY (1903)

    I never saw the hills so farAnd blue, the way the pictures are;And flowers, flowers growing thick,But not a one for me to pick!The land was running from the trainAll blurry through the window-pane;And then it all looked flat and still,When up there jumped a little hill!I saw the windows and the spires,And sparrows sitting on the wires;And fences running up and down;And then we cut straight through a town.I saw a Valley, like a cup;And ponds that twinkled, and dried up.I counted meadows that were burnt;And there were trees, and then there weren’t!We crossed the bridges with a roar,Then…

  • Art from The Green Forest Fairy Book (1920)

    These are some wonderful fantasy illustrations by Alice Bolam Preston for the The Green Forest Fairy Book by Loretta Ellen Brady, published 1920 by Little, Brown & Company. I really liked the style of these pages; they remind me a bit of art deco style, but subdued for easier printing (limited color palette, for instance). To make this post, I downloaded the raw JP2 scans from the Internet Archive, converted them to JPG and then hand-cropped and resized them. This particular edition of the book, including its illustrations, are in the public domain now! So you can use them to…

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    3 Literary Riddles from 1864

    These three riddles were pulled from The Santa Claus’ Book of Games and Puzzles, originally published in 1864. Despite the name, it’s not really Christmas-themed more than any other puzzle book. I chose these specifically to share because they have a similar literary bent, and are fairly easy to figure out compared to some other antique riddles I’ve seen. I’ve included the solutions to the riddles at the bottom of the post. Try solving them yourself before skipping ahead! 👉 More Riddle Books / More Literature 1. Of metal I can make a heart… Of metal I can make a…

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    45+ Free Riddle, Puzzle and Game Books (NO AI)

    If you’re looking for legit riddles, puzzles and games to download and use for free for a party or classroom (or whatever), then I urge you to check out public domain books. There’s a huge treasure trove of them waiting to be discovered, and you don’t have to sift through millions of AI slop posts trying to find something good. I’ve collected a list of free, public domain ebooks available for download on Project Gutenberg. These books have riddles, crossword puzzles, “conundrums,” games for groups and children, and much more. I went through the PG website and manually picked titles…

  • Art from ‘Twas the Night before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas (1912)

    This book is an illustrated version of the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by (probably) Clement Clarke Moore (see Wikipedia). This version was published in 1912 by Houghton Mifflin, and was illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith. There’s some really nice art in this book, so I downloaded scans from the Internet Archive, cropped them, and reuploaded them here to share! This particular edition of the book, including its illustrations, are in the public domain now, so you can use them to make your own art, make little prints for your house (Christmas decorations, perhaps?) and so on. Click…

  • Pepper Jam Sandwich Recipe from 1922

    This recipe comes from For Luncheon and Supper Guests by Alice Bradley, published 1922 by Whitcomb & Barrows. It’s a series of 10 menus meant for small dinner parties, automobile picnics (road trip food!), lunch rooms, etc. and it’s very well written– it even has an introductory section explaining how to prepare everything ahead of time for the party, where to get your ingredients and how to order them, the pantry staples you should have at hand, and so on. I’ve pulled a selection of recipes from the book and will be sharing them here on the blog, but if…

  • 30+ FREE Books: Women’s Historical Diaries

    This is the third of several posts linking to various public domain books on interesting topics! Public domain books are ones that have fallen out of copyright, and so they’re available for free to download and read. This specific post focuses on the following: Be sure to also check out 101+ FREE Books About Women Traveling the World for more books! I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books on the “diaries” keyword pages. I even hand-coded the links myself! My hope is that putting these lists together will help you discover…

  • 100+ More FREE Books About Women Traveling the World

    This is the second of several posts linking to various public domain books on interesting topics! Public domain books are ones that have fallen out of copyright, and so they’re available for free to download and read. This specific post focuses on the following: Be sure to also check out 101+ FREE Books About Women Traveling the World for more books! I’ve put this list together myself (no AI!!) by going through many (MANY) pages of books within the various travel-related subject pages. I even hand-coded the links myself! While you can find a lot just going through the main…