8 DECEMBER 1883, Page 19

All Play. By Mary Thorn. Pictures by T. Pym. (Shaw

and Co.)—Here is another book of the didactic kind. That "all play, no work, makes Jack an idle boy," is the obvious moral which it is in- tended to enlotce. "Master Guy" comes home from school for his holidays, and makes himself very disagreeable, as boys sometimes have been known to do. Doubtless, this evil may be mitigated by a judicious amount of holiday task. If Miss Thorn can persuade boys and parents (the indifference of the parents, who are annoyed, but too careless to enforce the remedy, is chiefly to blame), she will havo done no small service to the human race.