BOOKGUIDE

Ages two to seven

Story Number One Eugene Ionesco illus- trated by Etienne Delessen (Quist 25s). M Ionesco's sly, aloof, agreeably dry humour and his fondness for bizarre developments in solid bourgeois settings, both of which once seemed so sinister to adult audiences, are scarcely likely to perplex children under three. Airy plot, excellent dialogue, small capable heroine and a testy maid whose last words—'Don't be upset. These are just the silly stories her papa tells her'—older critics might usefully ponder. Handsome illustra- tions with surrealistic tendencies which may not suit all tastes.

Mr Bear in the Air Chizuko Kuratomi illus- trated by Kozo Kakimoto (Macdonald 16s). Simple text and sumptuous pictures : the pilot's first fine careless rapture, his sad sur- prise when the home-made plane won't start, his patience in adversity and his distinctly nervous jubilation when at last he takes the air are all delicately caught. Even apart from the exploits of this singularly sympathetic bear, the book would be remarkable for its spectacular colouring in emerald, scarlet, yellow ochre and a truly dazzling cornflower blue.

The 1-2-3 Frieze Michael Spink (Cape 13s). A pair of cheerful counting friezes, five feet long, in which one fox, two glowering cart- horses, three hens, five Hereford cows, seven mild and soigne sheep. and so on up to ten, are cunningly' disposed among bright yellow cornfields in a laughing countryside.

Toni and Sam Pat Hutchins (Bodley Head 18s). Two industrious, ingenious and horribly jealous mediaeval gardeners, each attempting to outdo the other in a race pursued hectically from page to page—side by side, back to back and finally head on in a collision which mends their tempers, to the great relief and pleasure of both parties. Brief text and bold, sunny pictures.

Harry's Bee Peter Campbell (Methuen 15s). Harry sets off to see the world accompanied by a turbulent bee who, as the biggest bee in England, demands an audience with the Prime Minister much to Harry's discomfiture and the eventual mortification of his friend. But the bee, though inordinately vain, given to muttering under his breath and to theatri- cal displays of temperament when thwarted, is by no means unreasonable and, once his status as a celebrity has been properly acknowledged, reveals a nature both cour- teous and affectionate. A captivating book.

The Miller, the Boy and the Donkey Brian Wildsmith (ow' 18s). Mr Wildsmith has few rivals as an illustrator in this country or else- where, but his admirers may well find this ver- sion of the ancient fable disappointing, the colouring conventional and his pictures of the donkey positively coy.

The Day with the Duke Ann Thwaite illus- trated by George Him (Brockhampton 15s). Amiable peer, shyly masquerading as foot- man, museum attendant, waxwork or ice- cream merchant, is foiled at every turn by two slippery small children who lurk and prowl about his stately home. Instructive and entertaining tale, copious text, moderately insipid illustrations.

Horns Everywhere Eleonore Schmid (Quist 21s). Fabulous horned pig, glimpsed dimly in the forest, disrupts life in a neighbouring small town. The core of the book consists of strange brown pictures, without text, illus- trating the dreams of the townspeople to whom the pig appears variously in bull ring, circus or sinister, moonlit palace, its horns sprouting into catapult, candelabra, parallel bars, even ice-cream comets : the whole orchestrated in shades of snuff, tobacco, cinnamon, burnt umber and sienna. A subtle and rather brilliant book for those who enjoy the flavour of Balthus, Arthur Rackham, Mervyn Peake and Walter de la Mare.

The Little Wooden Farmer Alice Dalgliesh illustrated by Anita Lobel (Hamish Hamilton 13s 6d). First published nearly forty years ago in America, this pastoral idyll of sturdy wooden people attended by sturdy wooden animals is peaceful, repetitive, orderly and trim, in short a comfort to anyone inclined towards the more sober, housewifely virtues. Diminutive illustrations, as in a sampler, each neatly stitched in place within a pink-and- green, flower-patterned border.

The Angel and the Donkey James Reeves illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (Hamish Hamilton 16s). The fierce, mysterious and occasionally murky story of Balaam's ass, clearly and simply told, and accompanied by illustrations in which Mr Ardizzone's hatched lines and pastel colours seem to have become for once a trifle mannered.

The Fence Jan Balet (Macdonald 21s). Ener- getic Mexicans in flounces, sashes, stripey blankets, tipping louche sombreros and twirl- ing villainously sleek moustaches, prove once again that 'it's the rich wot gets the pleasure. It's the poor wot gets the blime.' A gay, bland book decorated in firework colours—hot pinks and purples, cyclamen, tomato, plum against sharp acid greens and an opulent deep blue.

Jonah and the Lord George MacBeth trated by Margaret Gordon (Macmillan I8s Jonah's querulousness—that mood of self righteousness and resentful spleen so charac teristic of the Old Testament, here combin with a peculiarly Anglo-Saxon intransigene —should make a powerful appeal at any age and most especially to those readers who fi themselves from time to time chastised, lit Jonah, by a severe, omnipotent and pro vokingly humorous father figure (Hig above/ the sea where he sat, throwing / sle about, the/Lord heard Jonah ...'). Mr Mac Beth's uncommonly fine text uses assonanc alliteration, strong words and firm rhythm eminently suited to chanting aloud : 'Bo Jonah walked morosely/along the blac shore. He was/sure in his pride/there u nothing to be/done ...' Comparatively dra illustrations in familiar neo-brutalist style.

Ages seven to ten

Family Sketchbook a Hundred Years Ag E. Ellen Buxton edited by Ellen R. C. Creigh ton (Bles 25s). Revised edition of notes an sketches, originally compiled in the 1860s t amuse her nine younger brothers and siste by Ellen Buxton, grand-daughter to T. Buxton, great-niece to Elizabeth Fry. Tb matter-of-fact account of nursery life

as curious and weird today, as the most exo traveller's tale : family parties of fifty an more at a time besides sewing, reciting, drau

ing, riding, skating, fishing and a stea stream of new relations ('When Uncle B clay heard he had got another son, the on thing he said was "Hang him", because h was so sorry it was not a girl). The editor one among a hundred of the author's gran and great-grandchildren.

Lullabies and Night Songs Alec Wilder ill trated by Maurice Sendak (Bodley Head 45 There are forty-eight songs with pa accompaniment in this collection, the ran extending from traditional lullabies to 'nit songs' by poets as diverse as Blake an Thurber ; some set to music for the first u the others given new arrangements. They a all musically interesting and easy enough f youngish performers (though the notation sometimes a shade too 'decorative to r easily). Maurice Sendak, admirable il I ustra for children, spreads himself charmingly o the large pages.

I Saw Three Ships Elizabeth Goudge (Brox hampton I6s). Absurd and fetching tale pretty Polly Flowerdew, who, like all very best heroines, has 'sloe-black eyes' a 'a heartshaped face', and who, again so many of Miss Goudge's heroines. born to make strong men weep and sweet even the sourest spinster aunt.

The Crane Reiner Zimnik (Brockhanipt 16s). Odd, visionary crane driver dreaded river pirates, who, visiting a way inn after slitting a few throats, will mulligatawny soup with bloodstained fin Without batting an eyelid'. An excellent y

though apocalyptic developments half way through reveal a disturbingly fey streak in our hero; small, witty drawings, particularly of those subjects seen from the crane's cabin at a great height and very far away.

Ages ten to fourteen Fiction

Ahmed, Prince of Ashira Alan Wildsmifh (Deutsch 22s). Into darkened harbours dhows slip quietly up against the ebb; camels race urgently across the sands in the dead of night: a dangerous, desperate yarn with pungent whiffs of the casbah.

Charlotte Sometimes Penelope Farmer (Chatto and Windus 18s). A book to set every schoolgirl's heart a-tremble: Charlotte Makepeace, on her first day at school, is given a curiously old-fashioned bed, only to wake up in the same bed but forty years earlier and to be taken for one Clare Moby. On alternate days it's 1918 and 1958, a state of affairs which presents our Wellsian heroines with some hopeless complications and no end of embarrassment. A delici- ously contrived fantasy, gratefully short on the whimsy and lingering with masochistic thoroughness over the unspeakable horrors of North Pole Pudding and First World War porridge.

The Crime of 'aims Posey Peter John Stephens (Deutsch 21s). Latest of this pub- lisher's 'Time, Place and Action' books, Mr Stephens's stirring tale more than justi- fies its inclusion in the series: the time is the American civil war; the place a well- acred plantation just out of reach of Sher- man's advancing Yankees; and the action is as thick, fast and furious as one could possibly wish. The juvenile lead is wheel- chair bound, but a severely resourceful lad none the less, the chorus enthusiastically played by a motley—and largely amiable— band of slaves.

Old-Fashioned Children's Books edited by Andrew W. Tuer (Evelyn, Adams and Mac- kay 50s). A solemn collection of tales, cau- tionary for the most part but somewhat redeemed by flashes of genteel irony, comic verses, and 'adorned with 250 amusing cuts'.

Compiled from children's literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- turies, it was first published in 1899 and richly deserves this sumptuous reprint.

Treasure and Treasure Hunters edited by Richard Armstrong (Hamish Hamilton 21s). A book no treasure seeker, of whatever age, can possibly afford to be without. Setting out clearly the rules and regulations apply- ing to treasure trove, stocked with dramatic examples and all the latest information on how, when, whereabouts, and what to do with a cryptograph, this collection of infi- nitely engrossing tales includes stories by Poe, H. G. Wells, Jack London, Victor Hugo and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Wordhoard Jill Paton Walsh and Kevia Crossley-Holland (Macmillan 21s). Pre-1066 England, with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle still a going concern—mead in the mead halls and ale drunk from a poet's gourd; bucklers, byrnies, Byrhtnoth slain at Mal. don, and a thane who failed to die with his lord fleeing the battle; the common reflection is that 'Fate goes ever as it must'. . . . A lowering venue, but imbued through these stories with a rare and com- pelling charm. A touch portentous on occasion, much given to inversions and hwmthavyou, but a worthy gift for any youthful Ring Dane, churl or sister's son.

On the Stranger's Mountain Gladys Baker Bond (Abelard-Schuman 18s). Small, meticu- lously told tale concerning the trials of a fatherless immigrant family in America Twelve-year-old Otto makes a winning hero and a self-reliant pater familias but is scar- cely able to shoulder the added burden of Mrs Bond's crushing and persistent senti- mentality.

Non-fiction

Junior Pears Encyclopaedia edited by Edward Blishen (Pelham 18s). The regular appearance of this invaluable small refer. ence book in new and revised editions has long ceased to be a matter of surprise to devoted users. This ninth edition is right up to the mark, packed with recondite information and as always a pleasure to handle and to use.

The Wonderful World of Engineering, Transport, Prehistoric Animals and Dance David Jackson, Laurie Lee and David Lambert, William Elgin Swinton and Arnold Haskell respectively (Macdonald 21s). Too en rather poorly illustrated but on the ale a pleasant enough read, this series ilk) do with a facelift. Still, it's a good al more handsome than some and the • ormation, though outrageously potted, is lot less skimpy than most.

Remember St Petersburg E. M. Almedin- (Longmans 25s). A delicately wrought modal to the St Petersburg of Mrs dingen's youth: its history as told to by the uncles and friends who first fired passion for this island-built city, its e avenues and darker alleys explored duously by herself. Not quite blind to extremes of poverty and misery behind grand facades, she finds the first signs of revolution, when they come, have a cer- , bittersweet allure.

pea and People Geoffrey Grigson (John ker 36s). Another `book about pictures' m Mr Grigson and quite as enthralling his first two: an original collection of Waits and pictures of people from nardo's Self-portrait to Rousseau's The se Inspiring the Poet, from Modigliani to Yuan, each eliciting from him reflections, ressions and a few gentle pointers as to it might best be enjoyed. A rare treat.

e Great Trade Routes, The Earth in ion, The World of Tomorrow, Nature's • , Animal Migration (Collins 25s). A t international publishing venture is onsible for these five volumes in the ernational Library'—a worthy series in Time/Life tradition, solidly bound and 'oting at least as much space to illustra- ns as to text. Neither is worth special e, but together they make a sturdy- king set.

mal Partnership Maurice Burton (Warne Big fleas, it has always been suggested, e little fleas—but the partnerships in this mating book operate on a somewhat less atory basis: rhinos have oxpeckers ause their hides offer a rich feast of St the sperm whale has an escort of y phalaropes on account of his lice. mones have clown-fish, sharks have t fish; even the solitary coral has a ne worm for company; and nor is the it crab, Dr Burton reveals, all that rse to a spot of company now and then.

ed the Great, Battle of Britain, Winston re/till, Dairy Farming, Volcanoes, The or Industry David Johnson, Basil er, Martin Gilbert, John Lloyd Jones, g Jefferies and Greg Jefferies respec- Y (Jackdaw/Cape 12s each). The present eh of Jackdaws confirms the impression this admirable venture is running out of m. Alfred is the most disappointing- dy paper, the Alfred Jewel reproduced lack and white and ditto the rest but for e pair of illuminations from the Lindis- e Gospels. The others fall back on ographs with more justification, but Pt for a delightful ad for a Benz motor Point of the exercise seems to have worn lie blunt.