A ‘Shipjul of Children is the Little Folks' Annual for
1885. (Cassell and Co.)—From the same publishers we also get, prettily illustrated, but of course in a very different style, Annie and Willie's Prayer, a story told in verse ; and Sweet By-and-By, by S. Fillmore Bennett, a ballad set to music, and adorned with pictures of varying merit, some of them happy specimens of the American style of wood-engraving.
We may mention as deserving for their usefulness to come high in the class of " gift books," four volumes which now lie before us, and which should benefit, both in the giving and the receiving, if they help to keep restless hands well employed during the Christmas holidays. These four are Painting for Beginners, " First Stage" and " Second Stage," and Studies of Trees in Pencil and in Water-Colours, of which also there is a first and a second series. They belong to" Vere Foster's Drawing-Books," and are published by Messrs. Blackie and Son. The Painting. for Beginners first teaches, by the help of numerous drawings and of explanations in easy language, the use of one colour, and then the use of seven. The illustrations are by Mr. -Callow. The Studies of Trees are by Mr. J. Needham ; and the pupil is instructed in the same way, by precept and example.
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