The Toy-shop, Newbery, writing

Impressed by Horace and Bellinda’s close attention to his toy sermons, the toyman presents each child with “a pocket or memorandum book” for purchase, in which they should “make a memorandum of the benefits you receive from others, and always set down the faults or failings, which at different times you discover in yourselves. If you remark any thing that is ridiculous or faulty in others, let it not be with an ill-natured design to hurt or expose them at any time; but add this remark, that it is only for a caution to yourselves, not to be guilty of the same errors.” With these instructions, the pocketbooks serve a similar function to the ball or pincushion sold with A Little Pretty Pocketbook, toys that Newbery instructed children to use to record their good and bad deeds. In this story, however, Bellinda and Horace expand their observations to include the faults of their neighbors. Harriet the spy would approve! The illustration at the beginning of chapter 5 shows the two children writing in their books. Their journaling models for child readers how to make reflective reading, observation, and writing part of their daily practice.