25 JANUARY 1896, Page 13

A World beneath the Waters ; or, Merman's Country. By

the Rev. Gerard W. Banks. (Cassell and Co.)—The title and plan of this little volume naturally recall Charles Kingsley's famous " Water-Babies." The difference is that there is more romance in it and less science. The pictures are quaint and entertaining, and the book, as a whole, ought to be attractive to young readers. —The Young Pretenders, by E. H. Fowler (Longman), is another pleasant book for children, dealing not with the marvellous, but with a real life. The child-characters that Miss Fowler draws are natural.—A third volume, resembling the first rather than the second, for it contains a supernatural element, is The Lily and the Lift, by Mrs. Herbert Railton. This, too, may be commended to young readers. The pictures are particularly good.