Children's Books—First Instalment
Tumbledown Dick. By Howard Spring. (Faber. 6s.) Emeralda ! Ahoy ! By Elisabeth Fairholme and Pamela Powell. (Heinemann. 5s.) Locomotive, By Julian Tuwin. (Minerva. 7s. 6d.) Child of China. By Maria Gleit. (Oxford University Press. 6s.)
ENGLISH publishers have decided that children are going to read books, and to look at pictures as usual, and among them have brought out well over a hundred new children's books. Among the best of those for boys and girls round twelve to fourteen (the most difficult age to please) is Mr. Howard Spring's Tumbledown Dick. This is an agreeably realistic story about the son of a greengrocer. His mother falling ill, he spends an exciting Christmas staying with his uncle, who keeps a pet-shop in Manchester. With great ingenuity the author makes the boy participate plausibly in an inspection of the market by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, act as conjurer's assistant in a variety show, spend a thrilling evening at a doss-house, and in general sample the real faggots and tripe and onions steam of Manchester.
Another realistic story is Esmeralda! "Ahoy! which will be liked by Arthur Ransome fans. The sailing (on London River) is accurate and interesting, and the adventure with an I.R.A. desperado, who has bribed the captain of a tug, exciting.
Big-Business Billy is one of several excellent books by Polish authors published by the new Minerva Publishing Company. Some of their picture books are exemplary, and this for twelve-year-olds is delightful in its grave and practical detail. A little American boy (pains- taking but pleasant) runs first the library for Standard III in his school, and later its Community Shop. Most children would like to know how shops and businesses are run, and, in the course of an extremely well-planned tale, they get this information. The events are small-, but they and the far from stock characters are so well managed as to enlist sympathy and evoke excitement.
The Grey Goose of Kilnevin (agreeably illustrated) is for slightly younger children. This is an Irish tale by the author of The Turf Cutter's Donkey—a little sentimental but genuinely imaginative. Mimff would suit ten-year-olds. It is a translation from the Swedish, and has extremely pleasant pictqres. Its sub-title, " The Story of a Boy who was not Afraid," gives the basis for most of the adventures. They begin when Mimff is two, and the reader finds him, at a riper age, on a steamer in an Eastern port, and later precariously attached to a parachute. I wish the translator had simplified both language and presentation a little more, though the book will be all right for children with a big vocabulary. Reading it aloud to eight-year-olds, I had to adapt freely.
The remaining books are a recommended selection from many dozens of children's books, about some of which I shall hope to be allowed space to say more in a later issue. Locomotive is the best picture book of the year. Stories for Christmas and The Magic Fishbone and the King of the Golden River are old favourites excellently illustrated and produced at a remarkable price. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is, as one might expect, slightly formidable and allusive ; but some children would like it very much. Orlando the Marmalade Cat is a gay sequel to a book that pleased many children. Chinese Children at Play contains delicate and attractive pictures. Experiment with St. George is an admirable retelling of myths and stories which will delight an imaginative child. Bird Talisman is a traditional, or any- how classic, fairy tale about India, well told and well illus- trated. Child of China is an unsentimental and attractive
Previous page
