在美国，很多人都读过《麦加菲读本》，美国媒体更称其为“影响美国五代人的心灵读本”。其主编者威廉·H.麦加菲，是美国知名的教育家。他先后担任过弗吉尼亚大学道德哲学教授、迈阿密大学语言学教授，以及俄亥俄大学校长。他用了20多年时间，从浩瀚的西方经典文学中选编了一套读本，希望通过这些散文、诗歌、戏剧、哲理故事中浅显而美妙的文字，让美国的小朋友们在提高文学修养的同时，也可以感受道德教育的力量。该读本一经面世，就有近万所美国学校将它选为教材。1961年以后，在西方每年销量仍达到3万册以上。可以说，没有哪一套个人主编的教材能超过这套书的发行量！
这套书英文原版共7册，包括一册启蒙读本和1-6级教材。由于启蒙读本和第一级篇幅都很少，我们出版时合编成一册；其余2-6级则和英文原版相同。这套书的内容由浅入深，从基本单词、常用句型开始，延展到简单的诗歌，再进阶到中长篇的经典著作。从难易程度来看，前三部分内容单纯美好，文字朴素简洁，比较适合国内中低年级小学生阅读；后三部分的内容相对繁复深奥，开始有侧重性，有的笔法精密，描写细腻；有的文风犀利，寓意深刻，比较适合高年级小学生和中学生阅读。
这套书的特色在于它所包含的内容更贴近生活。它没有童话的唯美和寓言的神奇，但其中的文章会让小朋友们觉得事情就发生在身边。而且，除了对真、善、美的颂扬，麦加菲也没有回避生活中的艰难与困苦，但其宗旨绝非消极愤世，而是突出困境之下个人的坚守与成长。这样的文章往往更容易引起心灵的共鸣，滋养心灵的成长，也将对小朋友的人生观起到积极正面的推动作用，堪称真正的“德育”教材。
我们衷心希望通过这套书的出版，让中国的小朋友学习到真正标准的英语，开阔自己的视野，打开通往世界的心灵之窗；同时又获得文学知识、个人修养、伦理道德等多方面的提升。
Lesson 1 The Good Reader
Lesson 2 The Bluebell
Lesson 3 The Gentle Hand
Lesson 4 The Grandfather
Lesson 5 A Boy on a Farm
Lesson 6 The Singing Lesson
Lesson 7 Do not Meddle
Lesson 8 Work
Lesson 9 The Maniac
Lesson 10 Robin Redbreast
Lesson 11 The Fish I Didn't Catch
Lesson 12 It Snows
Lesson 13 Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded
Lesson 14 The Sands o' Dee
Lesson 15 Select Paragraphs
Lesson 16 The Corn Song
Lesson 17 The Venomous Worm
Lesson 18 The Festal Board
Lesson 19 How to Tell Bad News
Lesson 20 The Battle of Blenheim
Lesson 21 "I Pity Them"
Lesson 22 An Elegy on Madam Blaize
Lesson 23 King Charles II and William Penn
Lesson 24 What I Live For
Lesson 25 The Righteous Never Forsaken
Lesson 26 Abou Ben Adhem
Lesson 27 Lucy Forrester
Lesson 28 The Reaper and the Flowers
Lesson 29 The Town Pump
Lesson 30 Good Night
Lesson 31 An Old-fashioned Girl
Lesson 32 My Mother's Hands
Lesson 33 The Discontented Pendulum
Lesson 34 The Death of the Flowers
Lesson 35 The Thunderstorm
Lesson 36 April Day
Lesson 37 The Tea Rose
Lesson 38 The Cataract of Lodore
Lesson 39 The Bobolink
Lesson 40 Robert of Lincoln
Lesson 41 Rebellion in Massachusetts State Prison
Lesson 42 Faithless Nelly Gray
Lesson 43 The Generous Russian Peasant
Lesson 44 Forty Years Ago
Lesson 45 Mrs. Caudle's Lecture
Lesson 46 The Village Blacksmith
Lesson 47 The Relief of Lucknow
Lesson 48 The Snowstorm
Lesson 49 Behind Time
Lesson 50 The Old Sampler
Lesson 51 The Goodness of God
Lesson 52 My Mother
Lesson 53 The Hour of Prayer
Lesson 54 The Will
Lesson 55 The Nose and the Eyes
Lesson 56 An Iceberg
Lesson 57 About Quail
Lesson 58 The Blue and the Gray
Lesson 59 The Machinist's Return
Lesson 60 Make Way for Liberty
Lesson 61 The English Skylark
Lesson 62 How Sleep the Brave
Lesson 63 The Rainbow
Lesson 64 Supposed Speech of John Adams
Lesson 65 The Rising
Lesson 66 Control Your Temper
Lesson 67 William Tell
Lesson 68 William Tell (Concluded.)
Lesson 69 The Crazy Engineer
Lesson 70 The Heritage
Lesson 71 No Excellence without Labor
Lesson 72 The Old House Clock
Lesson 73 The Examination
Lesson 74 The Isle of Long Ago
Lesson 75 The Boston Massacre
Lesson 76 Death of the Beautiful
Lesson 77 Snow Falling
Lesson 78 Squeers's Method
Lesson 79 The Gift of Empty Hands
Lesson 80 Capturing the Wild Horse
Lesson 81 Sowing and Reaping
Lesson 82 Taking Comfort
Lesson 83 Calling the Roll
Lesson 84 Turtle Soup
Lesson 85 The Best Kind of Revenge
Lesson 86 The Soldier of the Rhine
Lesson 87 The Winged Worshipers
Lesson 88 The Peevish Wife
Lesson 89 The Rainy Day
Lesson 90 Break, Break,Break
Lesson 91 Transportation and Planting of Seeds
Lesson 92 Spring Again
Lesson 93 Religion the only Basis of Society
Lesson 94 Rock Me to Sleep
Lesson 95 Man and the Inferior Animals
Lesson 96 The Blind Men and the Elephant
Lesson 97 A Home Scene
Lesson 98 The Light of Other Days
Lesson 99 A Chase in the English Channel
Lesson 100 Burial of Sir John Moore
Lesson 101 Little Victories
Lesson 102 The Character of a Happy Life
Lesson 103 The Art of Discouragement
Lesson 104 The Mariner's Dream
Lesson 105 The Passenger Pigeon
Lesson 106 The Country Life
Lesson 107 The Virginians
Lesson 108 Minot's Ledge
Lesson 109 Hamlet
Lesson 110 Dissertation on Roast Pig
Lesson 111 A Pen Picture
Lesson 112 The Great Voices
Lesson 113 A Picture of Human Life
Lesson 114 A Summer Longing
Lesson 115 Fate
Lesson 116 The Bible the Best of Classics
Lesson 117 My Mother's Bible
