School in Fairy-Land. By E. H. Strain. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—
Mrs. Strain is a delightful—and to all appearance at least delight- fully simple—writer, but her new book is too mystically " fairyish " to be quite understood by the children for whom it is obviously intended. It starts in the old-fashioned way, " Once upon a time there was a fairy-school." But then we are carefully informed
that "this fairy-school was a place where little mortals went to be taught by fairies," and which had monthly examinations, and almost all the rest of the educational paraphernalia. To tell the truth, the lessons that are taught in this school are a trifle too elaborate and hard of comprehension. Yet the pictures of some of the girls in it, such as Ella and Alice and Margery, are very good. Mrs. Strain must, however, make her purpose much clearer the next time she writes, than she has done here.
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