7 NOVEMBER 1903, Page 8

A Book of Bad Children. By W. Trego Webb. (Methuen

and Co. 2s. 6d.)—This is one of the "Little Blue Books," and, granted that it is a joke to be a "bad child," entertaining. The children, however, are not really "bad," and they all become good. Mischievous Bartholomew tears his picture-book, and is reformed by a dream of mangled crocodiles, tigers, &..c.; "Sleepy Maria" is cured by missing all her meals ; and "Cruel Joe" is made cautious, if not kind, by a "yellow fly" sitting down on his thumb. The verse is good enough of its kind, and the "fifty illustrations by H. C. Sandy" quite appropriate. The volume is very prettily got up.