Messrs. Cassell and Co.'s Saturday Journal makes up into an
annual volume of goodly size, and full of entertaining reading. It is very strong in fiction. We have Miss Florence Warden's " St. Cuthbert's Tower," which has already been noticed in the Spectator ; Mr. Frank Barrett's "Fettered for Life ;" "The Diamond Button, Whose Was It ?" by Barclay North ; "Anther's Crime," by Julian Hawthorne ; and " No. 19 State Street," by D. G. Adee ; not to mention scores of stories completed in one number. Then there is the usual variety of entertaining and instructive articles, humorous pieces (hardly as good as last year), and those columns of patient wisdom which never tires of advising unhappy, bewildered, and dyspeptic correspondents.
We have received from Messrs. Griffith, Ferran, and Co. a number of prettily ornamented children's books, to which it is impossible, we fear, to do separate justice. Some are new, and some are old acquaintances ; but it is really impossible for a reviewer to keep in his mind all the forms, pictorial and verbal, in which such familiar friends as "Pass in Boots" or "Little Red Riding-Hood" appear. Among the new books is, we suprose, A Ring of Rhymes, by G. L. Shute. It is profusely illustrated, in the style which is associated with Miss Kate Greenaway's name. The pictures are an undoubted success. The title-page is par- ticularly good; so are the illustrations on pp. 10, 11, 14, 19, 45, to mention a few out of many good things. The rhymes are not more than moderate.—We have not space for more than a bare mention of The Fairy Tale Alphabet, A Apple Pie, and Peter Piper, illustrated by A. Chasemore ; and Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding-Hood, newly illustrated by Will Gibbons. These six belong to " Tho Old Corner Series."—In "The Newbery Toy-Books" we have The Book of Dollies, by " M. E. B. " (Mary E. Gellie), in which these important creatures are treated with a due feeling for their reality ; The Book of Dicloy- Birds, by Thomas Archer, with some capital pictures and good reading ; The Book of Christmas and Winter-Time, by " M. E. B.," with rhymes and reason about snow and ice, and other wintry things, which the young like so much better than the old ; by the same author, The Book of Playmates ; and by Mr. Archer again, The Book of Pussy-Cats, and The Book of Bow-Wows. In any of them there will be found good reading and pretty pictures for the young ones.—The Baby's Museum ; or, Mother Goose's Nursery Gems, newly arranged by " Uncle Charlie," contains pretty well all the nursery rhymes that we have ever seen, and some that are certainlynew to us,—one, for instance, beginning with " Thumbikin, Thumbikin, broke the barn," and another that betrays a Trans- atlantic origin, as its hero, little Jack Nory, had " his pocket tight with cents all bright." The pictures are mostly good, especially those of the fanciful kind, but the gentleman with a little girl on his knee on p. 70 is not up to the mark of the imps and gnomes.
From Messrs. Dean and Son we have received some very gaily coloured picture-books, belonging to " Dean's Gold Medal Series." These are :—Nursery Rhymes ; Visit to the Farm, with its various pictures of animals and farming work ; and a Military Alphabet, beginning with "A" for Artillery, and ending with " Z " for Zouaves. The puzzling letters at the end of the alphabet are ingeniously provided for. That intractable letter " X " is made to do duty for the 10th Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) ; " Y," of course, stands for Yeomanry ; " U" for Uhlan, and " P " for Punjaubee Infantry. Altogether, we get a representative book of the British Army with its many varieties, " Zouave " and " Uhlan " being, so far as we can see, the only exceptions to its national character.
Messrs. Routledge have published in separate volumes, as well as in one that contains the whole, that fine series of tales, the " Leatherstocking " novels of Fenimore Cooper, " adapted for youth," a qualification with which we will not quarrel, though we do not see any particular necessity for it. The five tales are : The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, and The Prairie. There are few finer characters in fiction than Natty Bumbo, and few which have been better kept up throughout a series.
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