Audiobook · read by volunteers
Goody-Naughty Book
Sarah Cory Rippey
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Betsie Bush · 2 chapters · 44 min
About the book
This little book has two sides, and which one you open first changes everything. Begin at the front and you meet the Goody children, who are kind, polite and helpful, and whose days run smoothly. Turn the book over and start from the other end, and you find the Naughty side, where the same sort of children make a mess of things in every way they can think of. Originally printed back to back so that a child could choose between good and bad behaviour, it is a cheerful early-twentieth-century picture of manners, with gentle humour and plain moral lessons. At under an hour in length, it is perfect for a bedtime story, a short car journey or a family conversation about what it means to be good. It is brief, simple and pleasantly old-fashioned.
Introduction
Sarah Cory Rippey, who died in 1915, wrote The Goody-Naughty Book for young children, and it was published in 1913. It was designed as a book with two front covers: the reader opened it from one end for the Goody Side and flipped it over to begin the Naughty Side. The idea of teaching through contrasting examples was well established in children’s literature, and here it is handled with brevity and a light touch.
The audio version keeps this structure, with one recording for each side. In the first, polite and thoughtful children do their duties and treat others kindly. In the second, the opposite behaviour produces a string of small disasters. The tone is that of a gentle cautionary tale rather than a stern sermon, and the lessons are the ordinary ones that parents have always tried to teach. Young listeners will probably enjoy the Naughty side most, and adults may smile at the period details of the nursery.
Because the book is so short, it can easily be shared at bedtime or revisited whenever a child asks for the story again. Parents might use it to start a conversation about kindness, honesty and sharing, and about what tempts children toward mischief. Collectors of early children’s books will value it as a small curiosity in the history of the form.
The two recordings, one for each side of the book, last about 42 minutes together and are read by LibriVox volunteers. The pairing makes a natural game: listen to the Goody side first, then the Naughty side, and ask your young listeners which of the two households they would rather live in.
Public domain
Sarah Cory Rippey died in 1915: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text