Phonics Museum Reader #25 (old)

This is the twenty-fifth of thirty-one readers used in the Veritas Press Phonics Museum program, designed for first grade.

Sample Section:

Story Background:

The early seventeenth century saw the birth of a new nation. While the United States of America would not be recognized as a country until the late 1700s, the trek of the Pilgrims and Puritans to New England in the 1620s established the origins for this country. Undertaking the responsibility of building a new community brought great joy as well as sorrow. Among those writers who captured the arduous life of the early settlers was a poet by the name of Anne Bradstreet.

Anne Dudley was born in Northhampton, England, in 1612. As a young child she became deathly ill with the small pox. She was able to recover from this violent illness and gained full strength. Throughout her childhood years Anne discovered enjoyment in reading and writing rhymes. She wrote of the adventures of life as well as the events of history. This occurred at a time when the formal education for girls and women was seen as unnecessary, if not evil.

At the age of sixteen Anne married Simon Bradstreet. They promptly moved to New England and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the home of the Puritans. Both her father and husband would later become governors of this colony. Life in the new colony was difficult, but Anne saw God's hand of providence directing the growth of the young settlement and portrayed this belief in her poetry. God blessed the Bradstreet's with eight children and many grandchildren who are the theme in much of Anne's compositions. Anne continued her writing until her death in 1672.

Considered as the first important poet in the American colonies, Anne composed poetry that is realistic and genuine. Her poems were compiled and published in 1650 as The Tenth Muse Lately Spring Up in America. This is generally considered to be the first book of original poetry written in colonial America.