"Farewell Rewards and - Fairies "
THE common or nursery fairy, by which I mean the tinsel- Bkirted, dew-imbibing, rainbow-winged nonentity, seems to have made her last flutter, and her place has been taken by much more attractive creatures. But, in spite of this blessed removal, there are very few among the authors of this year's books for children who have escaped the disease of patronage and its kindred ailment, literary self-conscious- ness (a malady as dreadful as its name). There are fewer still who have stories to tell and humour to aid the telling. Mr. Mervyn Skipper, whose book The Meeting Pool (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, Os.) contains twelve stories of Borneo and equally brilliant illustrations by Mr. R. W. .Coulter, is first among the happy few. His book cannot be classified either according to the ages of its likely readers or by compari- son with the work of any other writer, though it will un- doubtedly be likened to The Jungle Books. The animals are the actual tellers of the tales, and they collect on the brink of the Pool to discuss how they can get rid of the White Man, who is destroying their jungle. With all the irrelevancy of Parliamentarians they tell stories of how various beasts have outwitted one another. Some few of the stories are traditional, but all, as recorded by Mr. Skipper through his animal mediums, have new value, crispness and point. The book is a perfect example of the unity that so seldom exists between author, illustrator and publisher : neither quotation nor synopsis can possibly do it justice.
Psammyforshort (Methuen, 5s.), by Mr. Edgar Dickle, is another most successful and really funny book, which begins with the death of one king and the coronation of another. Psammyforshort ascended the throne of Egypt after the late monarch had been eaten by A Done Old Cow, who " died happily of a lovely sore tummy." There is no plot in the book, and one feels that the author was, very rightly, so excited over the adventures of Psammy that he could not bother to compose one. The irrelevancies might be annoying if it were not for the spurts of humour which will surely restore even the most captious reader to his nonsense.
Next in order of merit come Mr. Papinjay's Caravan (Collins, 6s.), by Mrs. Marion St. John Webb, and The Tale of Tom Tiddler (Collins, 7s. 6d.), by Miss Eleanor Farjeon. The former is a sequel to Mr. Papinjay's Ship, and is quite as good.
"It really is wonderful what you can do
With some bits of old string and a hammer and glue !
sings Mr. Papinjay, and it really is wonderful what Mrs. Marion St. John Webb has done with her Home-Made Fairy and the old lady, who pricked twelve balloons with a pin the very moment she was able to afford the luxury. Miss Farjeon has once again amused herself and us by playing with the street names of London. The story of Tom Tiddler and his mad little adventures in Baker Street, Petticoat Lane, Oxford Circus, and other enchanted places is very pleasantly told. The book goes with a swing and has great cuMulative effect.
Sent To Coventry (Dent, 6s.), by Miss Donalda Dickie, tells of the adventures of Bill, who went to Coventry because he was sent there. The town is packed with oddities, among them are The Night Air, Lady Hamilton, a Missionary and a Cannibal. There are some amusing bits in the book, but the whole thing is reminiscent •of a scrap-album whose pictures have become unstuck.
Over The Hills (Benn, 5s.), written and illustrated by Miss Barbara Bryan, is another story of a kingdom whose ruler is a small boy, but it lacks spontaneity. The author is a shade too patronising, and though she has written quite an amusing book, it is rather too full of morals.
Henry Heatherkin (Collins, Os.), in which Mr. Olwen Brown relates the .amusing adventures of a moorland gnome among his friends, Gertie Grass Snake, Andrew. Adder and others, is a. good, if uninspired, book for quite small children, and completes the list of really original stories.
There are, this year, a great many volumes of traditional fairy stories which will be welcomed by all those who -have had their appetites whetted by the Andrew Lang collections. One of the best is Silver Magic (Cape, 7s. 6d.), which is edited by Miss Romer Wilson, and contains stories about giants
and dwarfs, by such chroniclers as Grimm, Hawthorne; Perrault and Petronius. There are some very good examples of Elizabethan poetry in Wonder Tales Front Fairy Isles (Longmans, 6s.), but the prose is very slackly written. The author, Miss Frances Jenkins Alcott, who is an authority on folk-lore, has arranged her stories into sections, and the one which deals with Ireland is by far the best. Mr. Norreys Jephson O'Conor has also given a rendering of an old Irish fairy story, but his book, There Was Magic In Those Days (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 6s.), is far too precious both in style and format. Other books of traditional stories are Ajapa The Tortoise (Black, 6s.), by Miss Margaret 1. Baumann, Burmese Wonder Tales (Blackie, 5e.), by Mr. D. A. Mackenzie, The Little Wise One (Collins, 7s. 6d), in which Mr. Frank Worthington relates a number of most amusing African fables as told to -him by the natives.
Among the few books of verse which deserve mention are Night Lights (The Bodley Head, 5s.), by Miss Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, and Anne's Book (Medici, 6s.), by Mr. Karl Parsons with pencil illustrations by Miss Jacinth Parsons. The former contains one really beautiful poem, The Changeling, which is written in ballad metre, and the latter is full of natural and amusing verse. Miss Jacinth Parsons' illustrations do not, however, reach the high standard she has set herself in the past.
In conclusion, attention must be drawn to two books which were welcomed in these columns on their first appear- ance. In Dr. Dolittle In The Moon (Cape, 7s. 6d.), Mr. Hugh Lofting gives his many admirers an opportunity of following their favourite character in his lunar adventures. The other one, The Hoojibahs (Oxford University Press, 5s.), by Mrs. Esther Boumphrey, cannot well be described. It is enough to say that it is as full of exuberant nonsense as Alice in Wonderland, and seems to me to be distinguished by such vitality and child-like lack of self-consciousness that no readers
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