Mr. Galsworthy does not exaggerate in his foreword when he
says that Mr. Felix Salten's Banibi (Cape, 5s.) is a little masterpiece, written by a poet. To read it makes one much ashamed of those hard-hearted people who murder so many soft and gentle creatures to make a sportsman's holiday. Was there ever a happier descriptiOn of a new-born animal than this of Bambi, the forest fawn ? " He stood there, swaying unsteadily on his thin legs and staring vaguely in front of him, with clouded eyes, which saw nothing. He hung his head, trembled a great deal, and was still completely stunned." The story of Bambi's life in the forest and of all his relations and animal friends is entrancingly told. The author has a fine faculty of conveying sound through the medium of words : he writes of the threadlike little cry " of a wounded mouse, of the pheasants' " metallic splintering call with its soft ensuing chuckle," and of the " Sh ! Sh ! soft and very clear and silvery " of newly fallen leaves. This is not a book for children alone, any more than is The Story of a Red Deer ; indeed, it may be too heart- breaking for the majority of children.
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