28 JUNE 1946, Page 22

Children's Fare

No Ponies. By Mary Treadgold. (Cape. 8s. 6d.) Carmello. By Bettina. (Chatto and Windus. 6s.)

Little Half-Giant. By A. de Quincey. (Hamish Hamilton. 7s. 6d.) A SMELL of delicious food comes from the present batch of children's books. Crab, lemons, olive oil and red wine from Carmello ; saus- ages and eggs from Ishybushy and Topknot—particularly fine saus- ages, supplied by a griffin ; " thin slices of pink ham, crisp brown sausage-rolls, pork cheese, stewed pears and cream, baked apples, gingerbread, lemon tartlets, and coconut cakes (this meal, believe it or not, was tea) from The Bulleymung Pit. And, as we should expect from the author of Never No More, Miss Laverty makes the heroes of her new book play out their adventures to an accompani- ment of potato cakes, griddle bread, mushrooms stewed in milk and butter and fraughin pie.

No Ponies adds little to this feast ; not surprisingly, since it is set in the South of France immediately after the end of the war ; and one or two touches suggest that the aiithor, who wrote it during the last months of the war, was not entirely sure what conditions would be like. The adventure, however, moves smartly against a convincing background of little wooded coves, bare stony hills and mountain villages. It involves boys and girls from England, ponies, a deserted villa, two Cockney children who pop up surprisingly in a mountain barn, and an " underground railway " by which promis- ing young Germans are smuggled out of Europe to keep their Nazi faith intact (in South America?) against the day of revenge. The moderately complicated plot makes the book suitable rather for the reader over ten.

The adventure of The Cottage in the Bog is certainly keyed high, the treasure for which Con, Mike and Essie search being no less than the golden store which Fionn had made for Grania. But while that, and the underground passage, and the wicked foxy professor who lives in the big house of Glanaree may most delight the child, the grown-up reading aloud will be enchanted by the homely back- ground—the turf-cutting, the search for wild strawberries, the bread- making, the new calf.

The Bulleymung Pit is not a stoty ; or rather, it is the true story of a childhood on a Norfolk farm. Unlike some such memories, it has a great deal in it that children enjoy.. There is little about the child's feelings, and plenty about rabbiting, eating, market-day, driving the pony, rook-shooting, hedgehogs, pigs and the little grebe It would be a good book for a child who enjoys watching birds.

The Darwhis' delightful picture-book exploits one of the com- monest and pleasantest fantasies of childhood: going on a magic journey every night instead of dully sleeping in bed, with clothes, food and amusements of one's own choice. A griffin is the vehicle fox Ishybushy and Topknot. He takes them to a holiday star, to a circus, to underground treasure; they fly, ride circus horses, burst almostthrough paper hoops. It is almost as satisfying a fantasy as one used to invent in bed oneself. Carmello is another good picture- book. An Italian fishing-village, a poor one-eyed fisherman, a young lady who drops her wedding-ring, a broken mast, an artist, some starfish and two little girls ; and the story pops out at us as in- evitably, deliciously and inconsequently as the pictures. In fairy-stories, humans find themselves in giants' castles. In Little Half-Giant a giant—but a small "one, only ten feet—finds himself among humans. Mr. de Quincey exploits this promising theme well, and develops a very convincing fairy-story atmosphere, Russian, perhaps, rather than Grimm. JANET ADAM SMITH.