Books in Children's Books from Around the World series

The resourceful literary hack, Richard Johnson, was employed by many prominent publishers of his day. «Juvenile Trials», inspired by Sarah Fielding's «The Governess» (1749), concerns a plan of a tutor and governess to bring their unruly pupils into line by permitting self-government through a court with judge and jury. The subsequent series of trials provide humor, suspense and first-rate detective work and offer a lighthearted insight into by-gone educational methods.

The nine visions concern slander, pleasure, health, content, happiness, friendship, marriage, life and death. They were written by the genial English physician who numbered among his patients the poet William Cowper. Visions in Verse, while didactic in tone, sustained popularity for three generations when little serious juvenile poetry was being written.

The progressive eighteenth century educationist, Mrs. Thomas Slack, wrote under the name of A. or Ann Fisher. Her selections, largely drawn form the essay-serial, included as well anonymous pieces, probably written by the compiler herself. The Pleasing Instructor, first published in 1756, remained in print for seventy-five years and was widely imitated.