Children's Books
IN the later months of the year the trickle of books for children becomes a flood. Three-quarters of them are ephemeral—with well-worn themes, slipshod writing and poor illustrations—but among the junk there are generally a few works of art or originality. Of the nine books mentioned here two arc reprints, two are very well written, and the rest are competently written and have unusual themes. They would all make Christmas presents, mainly for older children.
Of the three straight fiction works, it is noticeable that they all concern journeys. The world has widened, with wireless and cinema and international conferences ; New York has become almost at real as London. The first book of the three is actually American, and a surprise. It is The Lion's Paw, by Robb White (Bodley Head. 7s. 6d.). There are scores of books looking like it—a modest little volume with competent but not particularly attractive black-and- white illustrations, the familiar map at the beginning and a title that suggests a detective story. But when you open it it is something quite different. The lion's paw is a shell—the finding of which symbolises a father's return—and the story is about two orphans who escape from their orphanage and a boy who escapes from his uncle because the uncle wants to sell his father's boat, but the boy believes that the father is not dead. The children edge down the Atlantic coast and into the Gulf of Mexico, and you get the look of the scenery and their hardships and adventures, all told with a most sensitive feeling for character and detail. Charmingly written, occasionally pungent with American conversa- tion, with plenty of excitement and some information and a happy end when the father returns and adopts the two orphans, this is one of the good books of the year, and would suit a child of, say, from ten onward.
Miss Noel Streatfeild is already noted for her stories of children who grow famous in the dancing or theatre world. She has the knack of allying artistic gifts and luck (which would occur in only one in a million families) with quite ordinary home .life. In The Painted Garden (Collins. 8s. 6d.) she takes her family to America— the father a writer, the elder girl a dancer, the second girl to become a cinema star and the boy an eminent musician. It is, of course, an improbable story, from the father's nervous breakdown because he has unwittingly killed a child, and the thousand pounds the family companion suddenly inherits which allows them all to travel to California, to the choice of an ordinary bad-tempered little girl for a film heroine ; but Miss Streatfeild includes so much of the usual family friction, such realistic descriptions of the boat and of New York and California, that she brings her story off. Incidentally, the book gives a very good idea of how the United States looks in a cross-country journey and of how films are produced. The third journey is in a different direction—to Southern Rhodesia. The book is Blue Smoke, by Y. M. Robinson (Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d.), and is said to be for "nine and up." The earlier and better part describes a family's trip to Cape Town in a small American cargo boat. The members of the crew become real ; so do the places passed. It is like a lively travel book. TIT: second part—life on a Rhodesian farm—has humour with the nativei and some story, but for girls, at any rate, the long accounts of shooting expeditions may become a little wearisome. This is dis- tinctly geography without tears, a solid, slow-moving but fresh chronicle. The illustrations by Wyndham Robinson have more verve and humour than most.
Two books of fantasy follow. The Cat Who Went to Heaven, by Elizabeth Coatsworth, with decorations by Kiddell-Monroe (Dent. 7s. 6d.), is a slim, flat production looking like a young child's book, but actually is for older children and would even touch the heart of a grown-up. It is a Chinese story—of a poor young artist who adopts a cat. He is saved from starvation when the priests order a painting of the death of Buddha for the temple, relives Buddha's life and other legends (so that you get stories within a story) before he begins work, puts in a background of friendly animals and finally accedes to his cat's pleading and adds a small cat last—although he knows that the cat was a rebel against Buddha and should not be included. His painting is rejected. Buddha, however, has more loving kindness than the priests, and a miracle happens in the night. " Where the last animal had stood was now only white silk . . . and . . . under the holy hand knelt the figure of a tiny cat." This :s altogether a charming production, reproducing the stateliness and quietness of Chinese work. The decorations are as good as the story.
Fanner Giles of Ham, by J. R. R. Tolkien (Allen and Unwin. 6s.), though dealing with a giant and a dragon, is not really a children's book, though it would be appreciated by adolescents who have read something of the tales of chivalry. It is a satire on the chivalric idea. The farmer, living in misty Roman Britain, becomes a great warrior, the " Darling of the Land," and even a monarch, solely through cowardice and caution and a bit of luck. The dragon itself is easily frightened ; the knights run away ; the court is in need of money. This humour—which is dry rather than extravagant—is enhanced by some very amusing drawings by Pauline Diana Baynes in mock mediaeval style.
In this age of fact a number of good informative books are being published for children. One of the liveliest is of travel again— Come Adventuring With Me, by Bernard Newman (Latimer House. 8s. 6d.)—stories told on the Children's Hour. Mr. Newman, generally with his bicycle, has covered outlandish places from Finnish villages to the Sudan, from Japan to Tunisia—and he has an eye for odd situations, a night with the gypsies, an interview with a bandit. He is sometimes over-facetious and jaunty, but his short sketches (about six pages each) are so readable that one can run through them all at a sitting and at the end find one has gained an enormous amount of information. Another good book, suitable for both boys and girls. Animal Inn, by Virginia Moe (Harrap. 7s. 6d.), another American production, is quite different in tempo (Times tempo, one might say, to Mr. Newman's Daily Express). This book is a longish but informative description of animals living in the Trailside Museum in the woods outside Chicago, one of a series of American animal museums for children. It will have perhaps an additional fascination
to English nature students as the animals are slightly different from the English. Not only are their habits described, but also their different characters and the friendships that developed in the museum. The illustrations by Milo Winter are both meticulous and humorous.
Two more issues in Dent's indefatigable reprints series will make handsome presents at 7s. 6d. each. Grimms' Fairy Tales gives forty. seven from the 25o published by Wilhelm Grinun's son in 187o, leaving out the riddles and anecdotes, the horrifying and brutal, with some revisions and new translations. Those who are familiar with bowdlerised versions will be surprised at the ramifications-. Grethel turning herself into a daisy and a frog proclaiming the birth of the Sleeping Beauty. The illustrations by Charles Folkatd, generously provided, will please children for their prettiness and detail, but to adult eyes seem a little over-fussy. The Swiss Family Robinson (with the same illustrator), though almost contemporary with the Grimm brothers' researches, is an amusing contrast in its moralising and long-windedness, but its rich and odd natural his- tory, including such incidents as the charming of a lizard with musi: and .the education of an ostrich, will sustain at least some young readers. GWENDOLEN FREEMAN.
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