The Bookman, it seems, offered three prizes of £100 each
for "best stories" for boys, girls, and children, and the three which were successful in the competition are published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The titles are For the Admiral, by W. J. Marx (boys) ; The Story-Book Girls, by Christina Glowans Whyte (girls) ; and The Adventures of Merrywink, by Christina Gowans Whyte, Illustrated by M. V. Wheelhouse (children). All are published at Gs. For the Admiral is an excellent story, full of well-arranged incident, narrated with admirable spirit. The "Admiral" is Coliguy, and the youth who tolls the tale is a young French gentleman of the Huguenot per- suasion. Jarnac, with the death of Conde, comes early in the story ; then we have the vicissitudes of the strife down to the patching up of a treacherous peace ; and finally, the hideous catastrophe of the Bartholomew massacre. An English contin- gent does good service for the Huguenot cause, and an English- man plays the part of second hero, and principal in the not obtrusive love-story. Altogether, this is quite a success. The Story-Book Girls is mainly humorous. It may be said to have for a moral that a girl should have common-sense, of all lessons the most useful, and doubtless the most hard, to learn. The Leighton girls may be said to be a little wanting in this quality—the kind of ideals with which they start may be taken to prove so much—and the experiences by which they may be supposed to acquire it are distinctly entertaining. The metal of the work is good, though it is sometimes beaten out a little thin. The Adventures of Merrywink is an effort to do one of the most difficult of literary feats, the writing of a good new fairy-story. It has merits ; its fancy is often ingenious and graceful. But our old favourites—Jack, whether he is of the Beanstalk or of the Giant's Castle, the White Cat, and Cinderella—remain an- approached. The illustrations are particularly good, and there is an ample allowance of them. The book is not less valuable than its companions.
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