The Children's Book: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems; A Mormon Book for Mormon Children

The thought came into my mind, Write a book for the children; and while I listened, it became a desire and a pleasant one, for I would dearly love to become the household friend of many little children who are growing up within the homes of the Saints. If they are willing to listen, I will tell them a few true stories, not fairy ones, indeed, of which little ones are so fond, so fascinating, but, alas! so false. No, these must be true. Many pleasant hours have I spent in story-telling, and surely my pleasure was as great as theirs; stories to sleepy eyes, out in the summer moonlight on the veranda, with great patches of flowers faintly showing in the shadows of wide branches, and night-birds singing over us; story-telling on rainy afternoons, or by roaring hearth-light; at home and abroad-how many listeners there have been. But I must not tell you what I have read, as I did those little hearers, it must be some things that I have known. If I could only show to my little friends of the present time, the sweet faces remembered looking anxiously into mine, it would be the best part of the book; those-no story could equal. Would that I could make these, also, my friends, as the authors I so loved were mine. Pleasant smiles and kind words from good hearts are sometimes worth more than silver and gold. AUGUSTA JOYCE CROCHERON Bountiful, Davis County, Utah September 3, 1890

Author: Augusta Joyce Crocheron
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 02/13/2012
Pages: 194
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.45d
ISBN: 9781470078324

About the Author
Augusta Joyce Crocheron was nearly two years old when her convert parents, Caroline and John Joyce, sold all they owned and sailed from New York to California with Samuel Brannan's expedition in 1846. After an unbearable six-month voyage, the family arrived in what is now San Francisco only to find desolate living conditions in a land at war with Mexico. The 1849 gold rush brought prosperity to the area but also the alcohol that ruined John and, ultimately, the marriage. Caroline later remarried, and in 1867 the family settled permanently in Utah. In 1870, Augusta married George W. Crocheron as a plural wife and together they had three sons and two daughters. As a writer she expressed herself in both poetry and prose, contributing regularly to Mormon journals and winning awards for two of her short stories. In 1880 she accepted the advice and aid of friends such as Emmeline B. Wells and published her collection of verse, Wild Flowers of Deseret. Ten years later she penned a volume of moral stories and poems for children called The Children's Book. Church history enthusiasts may be most familiar with her collection of biographical sketches, Representative Women of Deseret (1884), an early attempt to recognize the contributions of Mormon women and a valuable resource for historians. [from Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women, 95-96]

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