Messrs. George Harrap and Co. send us tt series of
volumes entitled Harrap's Dramatic Readers. The " foreword" tells us that the series aims at serving three purposes : to arouse a greater interest in oral reading; to develop an expressive voice ; to give freedom and grace of movement. Generally it is sought to utilize for educational purposes the dramatic instinct in the child. The series consist of five parts of graduated difficulty. In the first simple folk-lore stories, fables, and the like are arranged in dialogue form. The second part is of much the same kind, only that the material drawn from such writers as Andersen and the Brothers Grimm is on a somewhat more elevated plane. The same description may be given of Part III.: it is somewhat more advanced. Part IV. contains scenes similarly presented from history and biography, ancient and modern. Finally, in Part V. we have a more ambitious attempt to adapt to the purpose passages from standard authors. "Alice in Wonderland," " The Mill on the Floss," "Les Miserables," " John Halifax, Gentleman," " The Gold Bug," and " The Waverley Novels" are among the writings thus utilized. Finally, we have scenes from " William Tell," and from " Julius Czesar." These books will, we think, be found usefuL The authors are for Parts Augusta Stevenson; for Part V., Marietta Knight. The prices are 6d., 6d., ls., Is., and ls. 3d. We may mention at the same time Shakespeare's Tragedy of Coriolanus (Clarendon Press. 6d. net.), and in the same series The Tempest and Hamlet, reprints of the text, without Notes or Introduction. The Lyra Historica (same publishers) is an excellent selection by M. S. Windsor and J. Turral of Poems of British History. The poems begin with Mr. William Watson's "Father of the Forest" and end with the same writer's "King Edward VII.," though we have as an epilogue the noble passage from A. C. Swinburne's Armada, which begins with "England, queen of the waves, whose green inviolate girdle enrings thee round." The selection is in three parts, chronologically divided: A.D. 61-1381, 1388-1641,1644-1910; the prices are 8d., 8d., and ls., or the whole 2s. From D. C. Heath and Co. we have Fontaine's La J87,671.6 Siberienne. (We really should be disposed to change this melancholy ending.) From. Messrs. Harrap we have received The Children's Robinson. Creme, by Edith L. Elias, ls.
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