呈现于读者面前的这套《美国经典语文课本：McGuffey Readers》，亦名《麦加菲读本》，其编者威廉·H·麦加菲曾先后任美国迈阿密大学语言学教授和俄亥俄大学校长。从移民时期以来，这套《美国经典语文课本：McGuffey Readers》影响了四五代美国人的成长，对奠定美国人的道德观与价值观起到了很大作用。本版《美国经典语文课本：McGuffey Readers》的突出特点是，在精彩的原文基础上，增加了导学功能。这一功能包括两个部分：一是课后训练（STUDY GUIDE），这些练习由加拿大公立学校教师与英语教学者共同编写，帮助读者更好地掌握词汇、学会阅读、理解思考；二是朗读制作，加拿大高中从事表演与视觉艺术教学的 Schwartz，利用工作之余的时间，重新录制和编辑配套朗读。配套英文朗读免费下载使用，详见图书封底博客信息。《美国经典语文课本：McGuffey Readers》从第2册开始，均是比较正式的课文，概述了历史、生物、天文、动物学、植物学、餐桌礼仪、行为举止、对神和老师的态度等。每一课包括词汇和课文，并且对一些生词的英文做出了解释，让学生学会通过简单英文理解生词，养成用英语理解和思维的习惯。McGuffey Readers is a series of graded primers, including grade levels 1-6, widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and are still used today in some private schools and in homeschooling. It is estimated that at least 125 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold till the year of 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster s Dictionary .The second reader appeared simultaneously with the first and followed the same pattern. It outlined history, biology, astronomy, zoology, botany, table manners, behavior towards family, attitudes toward teachers, the poor, the great and the good. The duties of youth are stressed.