There is a drearily obvious and measurable reading level distance between the language of Davis' Tree Toad and Estes' Rufus M. or between Thomas Bailey Aldrich's Bad Boy and Henry Huggins. Sometimes this kind of yardstick is to be used with abandon--within a standard series, for instance. Here, relax. Let 'em stretch, and let 'em look back. They'll enjoy it. The qualifying adjectives of the subtitle do apply to every one of the selections. Among the authors included are Twain, McCloskey, Tarkington, Cleary, Robertson, Crist, and there is the compiler's own Perkins The Brain.