we are glad to renew our acquaintance. It is full
of comical pictures, of beasts by preference, though now and then we have a fairy prince or princess by way of a change. These royal personages seem to us particularly well drawn, and the
letterpress is not unequal.—The Animal Game Book, by Harry Rountree (George Allen, 3s. 6d.), is not easy to describe,
Various animals are playing at games; kangaroos, for instance,
Boys of Our Empire. Edited by Howard II. Spicer. (Andrew Melrose. 78. 6d.)—This "illustrated magazine for boys all over the world" is happily introduced on this its third annual appear- ance by a frontispiece in which "my boy Shovel "—this was Sir John Narborough's favourite phrase—won his first distinction by swimming with a despatch from Sir Christopher Myngs to the Duke of York. It is a stout volume of more than a thousand pages closely printed, and with a great variety of matter. It begins with "Champions of the Week," among whom we find the "premier batsman of the year "—not Mr. Pry, but Mr. Victor —Quackles Junior, by Harry Rountree and S. A. Hope (Cassell Trumper, for we have to do with 1902, not 1903—" England's and Co., is. 6d.); is a comical story, well illustrated. Mr. Rountree great centre-forward," whom it is, we are sure, quite unnecessary has a bold fancy, which is often very happy in its audacities. to name; "Middlesex's crack bowler " ; and minor but not Another volume for the little ones is Louis Wain's Baby's Picture undistinguished personages who swim, or play polo, or com- Book (J. Clarke and Co., is.)—Pure Pun for Boys of All mand fleets, or are great in science,--there is even a Bishop Sizes, by T. E. Donnison (Boy's Own Paper Office, Is.), is a re- among them. Then we have an abundance of stories, a quite publication of humorous sketches from the paper named. There indescribable crowd of miscellanies, and, of course, puzzles and is a multitude of them, and there is plenty of fun in them. Mr. competitions.—The Girls' Empire (same publisher, 5s.) is a Donnison is not above taking a hint from others, as from Mr, volume on a humbler scale as to size, with something less than Reed's prehistoric men, but he has much that is his own.—There five hundred pages, but generally superior in form. The reading, is some good drawing of the funny kind in Three Little Elves in which the useful is neither forgotten nor made too prominent,
(Liberty and Co.) seems good, as far as we have examined it. There are some at "hopscotch," and rabbits at "musical chairs." The book, in fact, is a kind of guide to various games, which are illustrated, for the sake, one might say, of amusement rather than explana- tion, by fanciful drawings of sundry creatures.—The
Arabian Nights, by W. Heath Robinson (Grant Richards, 3s. 6d.), is an adapted, as one might expect, a very much adapted, render- ing of the familiar book. It is intended for quite young children, who will certainly be pleased by the pictures, as brilliant in colour as they are fanciful.—Brilliant colour—sometimes, one might vanture to say, a little crude—is the characteristic of many of the illustrations of the Children's Annual (same publisher, 5s.) There are "things new and old" in the letterpress. Altogether it should succeed in attracting.—The Child's Own Magazine (S.S.U., Is.) is of a more serious character, and is intended for older children, and for these when it is their business to be serious. This, we see, is the seventieth volume. We wish it well.
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