NEW VERSIONS AND NEW EDITIONS FOR CHILDREN.
WE all know Mrs. Sherwood's The Fairchild Family by name, and now that it has been so well edited by Lady Strachey, its old popularity will be revived. For as she says in her preface to this edition (A. and C. Black, Ga.), its "author knew how to attract children by a lively picture of everyday family life, to arrest their imagination with details of bygone times, to satisfy their ingrained interest in matters of right and wrong, and to inspire awe by an occasional flash of tragedy." Lady Strachey has omitted all the passages con- cerned with the "gloomy inexorable doctrines" of " Calvinism in its most extreme form," but the wholesome, dignified religious atmosphere, which she has known how to retain, will appeal to those of us who dislike the uncultivated style of some of the modern writers on this subject. The book is illustrated in colour by Miss Sybil Tawse.
The Swiss Family Robinson. (Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. 6d. net) is too well known to require description, and this handsome volume, with its many bright and amusing pictures by Mr. T. H. Robinson, will no doubt increase its popularity ; though " certain passages in the original work have been omitted," the old quaintness of lan- guage remains. - Another old favourite in a new dress is The Fairy Book (Macmillan and Co., 15s. net), for which the late author of John Halifax, Gentleman, " selected and rendered anew," with much taste and charm of style, a large number of stories. Many of them were taken from Perrault, Madame d'Aulnois, and Grimm, and old English tales such as "Jack the Giant-killer" were also included. Mr. W. Goble's full-page illustrations ar•e pretty and fanciful, but the thr•ee- colour process is sometimes very unkind to them.
All the Old Nursery Tales have also been retold by Miss Gladys Davidson (The Pilgrim Press, 3s. 6d. net) in a smooth and easily readable manner. It has a coloured frontispiece and other black-and-white illustrations by Miss M. Tarrant.
In Messrs. Dent and Sons' series of " Tales for Children from
Many Lands" 6(1. each net) we have Guiliver's Travels to Lilliput and to Brobdingnag,illustrated in colour by Mr.Arthur Rack ham, and The Original Fables of La Fontaine, "rendered into English prose" by Mr. Frederick C. Tilney. These versions are well written, but we cannot help thinking that they will give more pleasure to grown-up readers than to children. The book is illustrated in colour by the translator.
There is a new edition of The Little Duke, by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, in " The Queen's Treasures Series," published by Messrs. G. Bell and Sons (2s. 6d. net). This amusing story should be as welcome to modern children as it was to those of thirty years ago.-Precept upon Precept and Fifty-two Bible Stories for Children., by the author of Line upon Line, edited by J. E. Hodder Williams (Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, ls. 6d. each net). The earnest spirit in which these little books are written disarms criticism, but cannot prevent the literary style from jarring on sensitive ears.
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