CIULDEEN'S Booxs.—What is an " annual "? We had supposed
the name to signify a yearly publication. Such were the annuals which flourished in such abundance some thirty or forty years ago. But it seems that the signification of the word is now extended to include a notion apparently borrowed from its botanical use, and that it means "that which flourishes through a year." Routledge's Every Boy's Annual, edited by Edmund Rontledge (Routledge), is apparently a bound-up volume of Routledge's Magazine for Boys. Is not this likely to deceive ? It was certainly a surprise to ourselves to discover what the contents of the volume really were, and it might be a very disagree- able surprise to a purchaser who finds that the book which he has intended for a present contains nothing that his young friends have not read long before. The contents, indeed, are good enough ; some of the con- tributions, "The Recollections of Marlborough," for instance, are decidedly above the average. Aunt Judy's Christmas Volume edited by Mrs. Getty (Bell and Daldy), is named after the same misleading fashion. It contains the last half-year's numbers of Aunt Judy's Maga- zine. We have expressed before this our sincere liking for that charm- ing little periodical, which ought not to need anything but its own merits to make it prosper. Tales of the Toys, by Frances Freeling Broderip (Griffith and Farran), is a book written in the manner of Hans Christian Andersen, and though not displaying his fancy and humour, not unworthy of that master. The first tale, that told by the ball, raised, we will confess, a slight prejudice in our minds. We resented, on behalf of the children, the being told where the various strips of leather came from, and how they were manufactured. Bok we did not come across any more useful information. What we found was a number of very simple, prettily-told tales, one or two of them, perhaps, unnecessarily sad, hinting but not obtruding a good moral, and altogether such as the little people might read with pleasure and be the better for reading. Two old acquaintances, very different from each other, appear with new faces, viz., .iEsop's Fables and Sandford and Merton, both of them rendered into words of one syllable by Mary Godolphin (Cassell and Co.). The first experiment has succeeded, in our judgment, better than the second. Sandford and Merton was scarcely intended for the very young children to whom this ela- borately simple diction is adapted. And to rob it of that distinction of style which, for want of a better term, we will call a kindly pom- posity, is in fact to destroy it. JEsop's fables take to the treatment more kindly. Yet we have some doubts about the wisdom of the plan. We question whether children like it. Children certainly are fond of using the longest words they can get hold of, and hate apparent con- descension. And we question also whether this one-syllablod language though it may be easier to read, is not harder to understand. Here is an instance,—" Give a man luck, and you may throw him in the sea," is not so clear as " Yon may throw a lucky man into the sea and not drown him." Why this purist objection to the dissyllable "lucky"? For Tales of Heroes, taken from English History (Nelson), we cannot say much. It is prosy and feeble, and sometimes, we believe, unfaithful to truth. We should be sorry, to give one instance, that English boys and girls should be taught to think of Simon de Mont- fort, one of the noblest of English heroes, as a man "the devices of whose heart were evil continually." And it may be doubted whether it is well to give Shakespeare's portrait of Henry V. as authentic history. Harry's Ladder to Learning (Ward, Lock, and Tyler) is an illustrated reading-book, containing a graduated series of easy sentences, nursery songs, and nursery tales. These seem good of their kind, and some of the pictures are very pretty. Old BurcheiCs Pocket, by Elam Burritt (Cassell), is for the most part a reprint of papers which have already appeared. But they will be generally new to young readers on this side of the Atlantic, and they are quite worth preserving. They have one especial merit, that they will do something to awaken in Eng- lish children a kindly interest in the aspects of life and nature among their American cousins. We feel bound to say one word in favour of the English robin, to which Mr. Burritt is scarcely just. What are his merits as a songster compared with the American bird of the same name we cannot say, but he certainly does something better than "Whistle and chatter in a rather pert way." He sings a very sweet little song in summer when other birds are mute. Among the Songs for the Little Ones (Ward, Lock, and Tyler) are some old favourites as well as new friends whose acquaintance we are glad to make. The pieces that bear the signature of "Aunt Mary," especially one called "A Nursery Song," are very good. On the other hand, some of the songs are very prosy, good neither for man nor child. The illustrations are generally good, and the volume, on the whole, desirable.
Previous page
