Jacob Abbott is remembered today primarily as the author of the "Rollo Books," the most popular fictional series for juveniles in nineteenth-century America. The books, published in two series--fourteen volumes from 1834 to 1842, and a ten-volume series from 1853 to 1858--center on the intellectual and moral development of Rollo Holiday, who became the first truly popular child character in American fiction. Besides the Rollo Books, Abbott created eleven other juvenile-fiction series and wrote or cowrote more than two hundred books in all, including works on popular history, science, education, and child rearing. Before becoming an author, Abbott was a Congregational minister and a pioneer educator, directing a progressive and hugely successful school for girls in Boston from 1829 to 1833. While there he wrote The Young Christian; or, A Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty (1832), one of the earliest American "best-sellers" to achieve popularity on both sides of the Atlantic...