GIFT-BOOKS.
STORIES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
THE true story of the Navy during the war, so far as we know it, has been more romantic than any tales of naval adventure that we have read. Nevertheless, Mr: Percy F. Westerman's The Seem. Channel (A. and C. Black, Se. net) is a oreditable performance. His short stories, especially that which gives the title to the book, are ingeniously contrived and, on the whole, credible. The secret channel in question leads through the sandbanks off the month of the Elbe, which our submarines probably know a groat deal better • The Mae fro,* the Claude. By J. Stowe Ololtetes4 Louden BtIrdcw0011 sad Sons. [65..net.1 than the enemy or the British public supposes.—Knights of the Air, by Esoott Lynn (W. and R. Chambers, Fs. net), is an exciting tale of British airmen who, besides fighting enemy planes, land and raid a German headquarters and achieve other astonishing feats. It is clearly illustrated by Mr. Harold Earnshaw, who, the author tells us, having lost his right arm in the battle of the Somme, has trained himself to draw with his left hand. Mr. Earnshaw's pluck deserves to be recorded.—Tarn o' the Scouts, by Edgar Wallace (Newnes, 5s. net), is another story of the air, told with a good deal of humour, about a Scottish champion.—When Wolf Meets Wolf, by Mark Harborough (A. and C. Black, 5s. net), is a lively story of Boy Scouts, a German spy who keeps wolves, and a thick-headed country policeman.—The Banner of the White Horse, by Clarence Marsh Case (Harrap, 58. net), carries us back to the Saxon 'conqueist of England. The author has taken pains with the historical setting, and the campaigns of the invaders are well described, though the dialogue is somewhat stilted.
The Ledge on Bald Face, by Major C. G. D. Roberts (Ward, Lock, and Co., 5s. net), is an attractive set of stories of the Wild West, in the author's well-known manner. In the first story a hunter, without his rifle, while crawling along a narrow ledge on the side of a precipice, encounters and evades a bear, who in turn is attacked by a bull-moose. Mr. Roberts describes such episodes with much skill. The longest story in the book deals with the adventures of a police clog in tracking criminals.—In The Three Prefects (A. and C. Black, 5s. net) Mr. R. S. Warren Bell has hit on a new idea for a school story by imagining a general strike against the inadequate dietary which prevails at Claverdon. The idea is well worked out.-- The same author has collected in eircyhouse Days (Newnes, 5s. net) a number of amusing short stories of school life.
A Patriotic Schoolgirl, by Angela Brazil (Blackie, 4s. 6d. net), is an amusing story of a boarding-school in war time. There is a spy-hunt in which, of course, the wrong person is suspected. The authoress makes her girls talk slang, but that, as we all know, is the fashion.—Another entertaining book, The School of Ups and Downs, by Elsie Jeannette Oxenham (Chambers, 5s. net), is,mainly concerned with a summer camp on the Downs, where some enthusi- astic " Brownies " organize a " Camp Fire " after the manner of Hiawatha. It is well written and full of simple incident. Spoilt Cynthia at School, by May Baldwin (same publishers, 4s. net), is a pleasant school-story, dominated by the engaging figure of an old nurse who shows her courage in an aig raid.—The Girls of Chequer- treks, by Marion St. John Webb (Harrap, 6s. net), deals with some girls who are invited by an eccentric old lady to finish their educa- tion at a country-house on condition that they do not pry into a locked-up room. It is a novel and ingenious tale ; the old lady, like Bluebeard, finds the condition violated. We like the womanly account of the untidy old scholar who acted for the mysterious benefactress. --Cynthia Wins, by Bessie Merchant (Blackie, 4s. 6d. net), is an exciting story of a young girl in British Columbia who, by accident, foils the plans of a band of train-wreckers and saves her lover's fortune. The wild life of the backwoods is well de- scribed.—Too Near the Throne, by Alice Wilson Fox (S.P.C.K., 5s. net), is an agreeable historical romance of Charles I.'s time The heroine is supposed to be the daughter of Lady Arabella, Stuart, Countess of Hertford, whom James L imprisoned as a dangerous rival. We must not betray the secret of the plot, which is worked out with some care.—Queen Jennie, by May Wynne (Chapman and Hall, 7s. net), deals with Jacobites in the Highlands and their encounters with hostile Campbells. It was perhaps a mistake to introduce a " King Robert " as the wholly imaginary hero, but the adventures are recounted with much spirit.—The Black Dog's Rider, by E. E. Cowper (S.P.C.K., 5s. net), is a romance of Queen Anne's reign, concerned with plots to ensnare or despoil an heiress and with the doings of a band of highwaymen. It is an entertaining tale.—Jumped by Convicts, by Joy Merivale (same publishers, 3s. 6d. net), describes life up country in British Guiana ; while The Ivory Cross, by Forester Clarke (Robert Scott, 6s. net), is a pleasant story of farm life in Victoria. Such books, relating to the Dominions and Colonies oversee, deserve attention.
Previous page
