The book is therefore not exclusively intended to develop the pupil's power of reading from one particular stage to the next. It is a book of general educational purpose - to which a training in reading is necessarily and inevitably incidental. The Book of Interests is not claimed to be for children of a certain age or a certain attainment: it is presented quite simply, if not so modestly, as a book which all children should read at one particular stage of their psychological development - a stage that will be clearly and unmistakably recognised by all experienced teachers. This unusual, 'General-Utility,' character is entirely due to the book's linking of reading with activity and experience.