20 DECEMBER 1884, Page 20

Effie and her Strange Acquaintances. By the Rev. John Crofts.

Phillipson and Golder, Chester ; Griffith, Ferran, and Co., London.)— This book may perhaps best be described by saying that the machinery of the story reminds us of "Alice in Wonderland," but that there is a gently-suggested didactic purpose of the scientific kind throughout it. It may be read with amusement and profit. We may, perhaps, suggest that a little girl such as Effie would hardly entertain such a fear as that of a friend "breaking a blood-vessel."