Child continued to write for women after her advice book, The Frugal Housewife (1829), sold well. The Mother’s Book offered advice on a wide range of subjects including “early cultivation of intellect” and “views of death.” In a chapter that featured a “list of good books,” she provided a practical guide to “useful and entertaining family reading” beyond what children might learn in school. She omitted sectarian books because she believed that religious doctrines should not be forced into young, moldable minds. She called Mother Goose, Tom Thumb, and Cock Robin “absurd nonsense,” and she warned against the “unnatural horrors of Blue Beard and Jack the Giant Killer.”

Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts