16 AUGUST 1890, Page 24

Boy : Word-Sketches of a Child's Life. By Helen Milman.

(Griffith, Ferran, and Co.)—This is a story written on lines some- what resembling those of "Misunderstood." " Boy " is an enfant incompris, if we take that phrase without the cynical meaning commonly attached to it. It is a very pretty and very pathetic tale. The only criticism that it occurs to us to make is implied in the question—for whom is the book meant ? Not, surely, for children; their hearts ought not to be wrung by such sorrows. For parents who try to do their duty ? They have troubles enough, without having them imagined for them. For un- sympathetic mothers, such as " Boy's " is represented to have been ? Possibly ; but such people do not read these books, and if they did, would not recognise themselves.