A number of old friends are back this sea- son
: Himself, the darlin' talking dog, Kenneth Bird's most happy creation, returns in Stardom For Himself Kenneth Bird (Macdonald 18s) and results in a darlin' book which I read with a lot of laughter, and a tear or two for the orphans of Clongarrie.
Michael Bond's Paddington, a bear prone to hilarious adventures, has several more in
Paddington Takes The Air Michael Bird (Collins 15s); the visit to the dentist is in- spired. The Wombles, first introduced to us by Elizabeth Beresford last year, now find Wimbledon Common too noisy for them (how I do agree!) and in The Wandering Wombles Elizabeth Beresford (Benn 2ls) they .search for, and happily find, a new home, though they have some exciting and diverting adventures in the course of their search. Lord Pip, John Cunliffe's hero, careers through The Adventures of Lord Pip John Cunliffe (Deutsch 21s) in an orange Jaguar that can go at a hundred-and-sixty miles an hour, fast enough to catch dragons, let alone keep up with the Joneses. He revs and VROOMS and lets off rockets and sirens; the Wombles would have hated him—and to tell the truth so did I. Miss Bianca, Margery Sharp's exquisite and elegant mouse-heroine, in her latest venture forth from her porce- lain pagoda, flies to India where, so to speak, she twists an elephant round her tittle finger. The unfailingly loyal Bernard is with her throughout, I am happy to say, supporting her with his incredible courage and sensible thoughts. I do so adore him, though he always strikes me as more of a Mr Salteena than a Bernard. Miss Bianca In the Orient Margery Sharp (Heinemann 25s). Erik Blegrad's illustrations are as delicious as Miss Bianca's verses and harp-playing.
Best Specs Janet McNeill (Faber 2ls) is an anthology of vintage stories about this be- spectacled schoolboy with a mania for mak- ing himself invisible, indeed for vanishing tricks of all kinds. I don't know whether it was just my review copy, but in the last story of this collection, 'Once in Five Hun- dred Years' several pages were disconcert- ingly missing. A publishing error—or Specs up to his pranks again?
Two books for the nursery shelves are Clever-Clever-Clever folk tales selected by Jeanne B. Hardendorff. (Macdonald I Ss). is a small but excellent anthology of traditional folk tales, subtle little anecdotes of basic home truths, that have been travelling round and round the world since time began. Hans Andreus, author of The Stilt Pedlar (Chatto, Boyd and Oliver 28s) is sometimes des- cribed as a Dutch Hans Andersen; he isn't quite, in fact he isn't by a long chalk. but this is still a desirable addition to the reading of younger children. One story a night will keep them happy for twenty-six nights; then you can start again.
Those people who like to think that their dogs call them Mum will greatly enjoy The Dogs of Pangers Lorna Wood (Dent 20s): I enjoyed it.Myself once I had resigned myself to the appalling thought that my terrier may actually call me Mum. 1 don't want to sound chauvinistic. but children's books the other side of the Atlan- tic are not, in the matter of content, in the same league as the junior novels that so excite one over here. Even Where The lilies Bloom Vera and Bill Cleaver (Hamish Ham. ilton 25s) a book that hai been highly acclaimed in the United States as a 'special -presence' amongst children's novels. seems to me no more than a schmaltzy updating of heart-warming Katy-Didism. It's a sentimen. tal tale of the simple and earthy joys of being poor and parentless in the Appalachians. Well. maybe being poor in the Appalachians is as cosy as this book makes it sound—and • then again, maybe it isn't. The Fair Ameri- c•ai Elizabeth Coatsworth (Blackie 18s) is beautifully written and really brings to life the child Pierre, escaping from .sans-culottes to safety across the Atlantic, but I don't for one instant believe that this small aristocrat would nurse the philosophical thoughts about the men who guillotined his father that Miss Coatsworth attributes to him, and why has she substituted Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood for the historically and seman- tically correct Liberty, Equality and Frater nity? You can't learn too early in life to pre- fer accuracy. A Grandson for the Asking Natalie Savage Carlson (Blackie 16s) doesn't pretend to be more than it is; a nice warm story for little girls and I confess to enjoying it in the spirit in which it was intended. No philosophy here, though Miss Carlson con- trived to smuggle in a bit about herbs; Americans just now seem dead gone on herbs and the good earth and nature cures; 'wild- crafting', they call it. I think it's dangercius, just a bit, in children's books; there's enough accidental poisoning going on amongst the young, as it is, these days, what with all the pills.
Trail of Apple Blossoms Irene Hunt (Blackie 18s), illustrated by Don Bolognese, is visually a little beauty. But with the legen- dary Johnny Appleseed we are back with herbs and poultices and nature cures again; in short,'it is a 'sermons in stones and run- ning brooks' little book and I know that when I was young I would, alas, have given Johnny Appleseed short shrift. The book as a physical thing, however, would have en- chanted me. I think it will many children.
The Golden Bird Edith Brill (Dent 38s), with decorations and pictures by Jan Pien- kowski, and a most- gorgeous hard-cover concealed by a deliciously fantastical dust- jacket, is a feast indeed; both for the eye, and for that part of one's being that responds with every instinct to genuine fairy-stories. A lovely present, this would be. While Paul and Dorothy Goble's Custer's Last Battle (Macmillan 21s) is described as a picture- story, it is an impressive example of how to integrate text and pictures. The battle is recounted by Red Hawk, a fictional fifteen- year-old Sioux boy, but the material for his account is taken from historically reliable sources. The pictures are inspired by Plains Indian paintings of the period 1860-1900.
Finally, for all feasts must come to an end, there is a sorbet of poetry. Batsford's Book of Children's Verse, edited by Stevie Smith (Batsford 26s), is enchantingly sky and apple blossom clad, has pictures which comple- ment, rather than illustrate the poetry. The contents, chosen by a poet, have a poet's un- erring grasp of child psychology. As for Junior Voices, an anthology in poetry and pictures, edited by Geoffrey Summerfield (Penguin Education 4 vols. 8s each), this most imaginative, thoughtful, far-ranging, all senses stimulating anthology of poetry and pictures for seven-to-eleven-year-olds may help to explain, in some measure, why it is that children today have the qualities which make them such exciting and satisfying readers for so many writers.
Molly Lefebure
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