author
Ellen M. Cyr
1860–1920
A pioneering educator turned classroom experience into some of the most widely used children’s readers of her era. Her books helped shape early reading instruction in the United States at the turn of the 20th century.
2 Audiobooks
Libro segundo de lectura
by Ellen M. Cyr
The Cyr Readers: Book 8 Arranged by grades
by Ellen M. Cyr
About the author
Born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1860, Ellen M. Cyr Smith became an author and educator whose work reached classrooms across the United States. She taught at Holmes Primary School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and drew directly on that experience when writing books for young readers.
She is best known for the Cyr Readers, a series of basal readers that became popular in the 1890s. She also wrote other educational works, including The Children's Primer, and is remembered as an early woman author to successfully market a schoolbook series under her own name.
Ellen M. Cyr Smith died in 1920, but her books remain part of the history of American education. For listeners interested in classic school literature and the development of reading instruction, her work offers a glimpse into how generations of children first learned to read.