The Lord of the Deer, and other Fairy Tales. By
H. H. Harrod. (Lamley and Co. 3s. 6d.)—Here we have twelve essays at that most difficult of tasks,—the modern fairy-tale. We cannot say that the first of the twelve particularly pleases us. We are not accustomed to see boys and girls remaining in the beast-shapes into which they are changed, and we do not approve. To marry a Frost-King does not seem a happy lot,—so much for the second. The "Bear-Girl" is more to our liking, and has a ring of the genuine metal about it. Much the same may be said of the last, "The Three Bags."—Roundling, and other Fairy Tales, by Caroline Southwood Hill (Seeley and Co., is. 6d, net), is a suc- cessful effort in the same direction. Possibly there is too much of the moral in them. In the true fairy-tale if you are a younger son you are good.—In Fire Side Fairy Tales (J. Clarke and Co., is.) we have another pleasant little book of the new fairy- world. What could be more modern than "Blue Spectacle " ? —Night Caps for the Babies, by Charles Young (John Lane, 3s. 6d.), gives the fairy-story in a funny shape. Here again there is a little too much modernity. Why trouble the babies with the "mixed-up trash about politics and the police news" which was eaten up by "Mr. Hee-haw Heady" in a newspaper ? The pictures can be praised with less reserve.—Harriet Hare, Written and Illustrated by Arthur Layard (James Nisbet and Co., Is. net), is something of the same kind, a comic story about beasts.—So also is The Tale of Tom Kitten, by Beatris Potter (F. Warne and Co., is. net). Miss Potter's books are always welcome, and some of her pictures are very good, that, for instance, where 'Mrs. Tabitha ' is washing the kittens' faces. In others the creatures are not made pretty enough,—what could be prettier than a kitten ?—To this class also belongs Animal Gambols (J. Clarke and Co., is.), to which some skilful pencils, notably that of Mr. Louis Wain, have con- tributed. We may mention as especially good the "Swimming Baths in Catdom " and the "Two Little Naughty Bears,"—cats and bears are always to the fore in these matters. Good, also, is the very original idea of the bear sw!nging on a rope fastened to two giraffes. —With these may be mentioned The Peter Pan Almanac, by Oliver Herford (Hodder and Stoughton), excellent pictures, with verses on which a little more care might have been profitably expended.
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