Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least
one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: "Little Pretty
Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master
Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack
the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will
infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making
their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this
extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
a better choice.

[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]

The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so
characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine