Book Reviews [pp. 107-112]

Book Reviews.
miliar type of collections of extracts from the writings of some favorite author; prettily printed and
bound, in a small, serviceable fashion; provided
with marginal titles, according to a comfortable old
fashion lately returned; arranged in chapters, such
as "The Inner Life," "Woman," "Children,"
"Education," "New England Life"; - an interesting little volume, containing much shrewd wisdom,
much wit and pleasant good sense, and recalling
agreeably books that have had an important influence on our literature.
Children's Books.
THE great increase in children's books about this
time of year intimates, of course, that books to
them are almost entirely matters of gift-giving. They
are not free to go and purchase at all times of year,
and their little libraries are chiefly made up of the
books given them from time to tinie. To many intelligent children, especially those who live in retired
homes of moderate means, a book is the one present
coveted above all others; and long may it be before
they all grow blase over the abundance and luxury of
the books provided for them nowadays, as some of
them have already grown.
Nothing more permanently delightful of its sort
can be offered them than Edward Lear's nonsense
books. A twenty-sixth edition of The Book of Nonsense, 1 "with all the original pictures and verses," is
now before us. No one can look at the extraordinary picture on the title page of the author handing
out his book to the children with his explanation of
his own purpose as follows,
There was an old Derry down Derry who loved to
see little folks merry;
So he made them a book, and with laughter
they shook,
At the fun of that Derry down Derry,
without a snmile. The familiar
old man with a beard, who said, "It
is just as I feared! Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren,
Have all built their nests in mny beard!
and the interesting
young lady whose bonnet came untied
when the birds sat upon it;
But she said, " I don't care! all the birds in the
air
Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!"
and most famous of all, the
old man who said, "How shall I flee
from that horrible cow?
I will sit on this stile, and continue to smile,
Which may soften the heart of that cow,"
iThe Book of Nonsense. By Edward Lear. London
and New York. Frederick Warne & Company. For
sale in San Francisco by Pierson & Robertson.
are here, with a hundred-odd of their kin. The artistic crudity and ineffectiveness of the faces and figures,
joined to the superhuman effectiveness of their expressions is something fine. One must remember in
looking at a book like this that a slight blunting of
our amusement has been brought about through the
imitations now so abundant in children's magazines
and books, and try to take himself back to the time
these rhymes and drawings were first made.
Queer People wzeith Pawzs and Clawzs2 is by Palmer
Cox, author of "The Brownies," and contains some
thirty droll rhymed tales of various impossible doings
'of cats, and mice, and dogs, and foxes, illustrated
with Mr. Cox's droll drawings. Some of these have
already been in print: others are new. There is a
quaintly amusing expression of face and form in all
these pictures, as there was in the famous brownies.
To us it grows a trifle monotonous, having a good
deal of repetition; but children do not mind that
much, and Mr. Cox's animals, like his brownies, are
always immense favorites with them.
What the Wind told to the Tiree-tops 8 is a book of
tales, a good deal in the German style, and evidently
written under German inspiration. The trees beg
the wind to tell them stories, complaining that rootal
as they are they cannot know what is going on; and
the wind, good-naturedly reflecting that it must be
stupid never to be able to roam about at all, complies. The December wind, the January wind, the
February wind, and so on in turn for twelve months,
tell each a tale in prose or rhyme. The December
wind begins and the November wind ends; thus the
two opening stories are Christmas stories. The
others are of every possible variety, grave and gay,
but with always more or less of a moral. The narrative element in them is sometimes of the slightest.
They are prettily told and well illustrated and make
up a good gift-book.
Three books for quite little readers,- children of
eight or ten, we should say,- published in uniform
style, as the "Little Jacket Series," are Christopher
Cranch's The Last of the Huggermnggers 4 and Kobbeltozo,a and John Ruskin's Tlhe King of the Golden
River.6 Mr. Cranch's stories were first published
thirty-odd years ago, but if it were not for the quaint
old-fashioned pictures it would be difficult to detect
their age. Not but that there is a certain old-fash
2 Queer People with Paws and Claws. By Palmer
Cox. Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers.
What the Wind told to the Tree-tops. By Alice
Williams Brotherton. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. i888. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.
4The Last of the Huggermuggers. By Christopher
Pearse Cranch. Boston: Lee & Shepard. I889. For
sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.
5 Kobbeltozo. Ibid.
6The King of the Golden River: or The Black
Brothers. A Legend of Stiria. By John Ruskin. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 5889. For sale in San Francisco
by Samuel Carson & Co.
1889.]
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