A Little Brother to the Birds. By F. W. Wheldon.
(Methuen and Co. 6s.)-Here we have "the story of St. Francis [of Assisi] told for children." Of course, as the title indicates, the singular dealings of the saint with the creatures of earth and air form a part of the story. It could not but be so. But it is no easy task to tell these things aright, for the children who are addressed are modern children, and we know what the modern child is. It strikes us that the stories of the sermon to the birds and of the repentant wolf are a little crude. We are not prepared to say how it should be done ; possibly the idea that these are fables rather than actual narratives might have been somehow conveyed. One does not want the young reader to cry, "Oh, this can't be true ! "-as he is not unlikely to do when he reads of the birds "forming themselves into a great cross." This is our only criticism on what is a very pleasing book.
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