The Washington times., 1901-11-17

| on the morning when she recognized it
| Tor the first time She was six weeks old
| when the winter disappearance of the sun
! TOOK place, and when the sunlight again
| became visible especial pains was taken
To give her sun bath and secure pic
| ture or her at the time. Whether dressed
in her furry Eskimo suit or in ordinary
| American clothes she is a winsome little
body, and the record is unique as well as
entertaining. CNew York: Frederick A.
Stokes Company. sl.2o)
A particularly clever bit of Juvenile lit
| erature is THE Surprise Book a large,
fiat volume full of pictures and verses.
! The verses are by Nell X. McElhone, and
the drawings which are in black and
white, by Albertine Randall Wheelan, and
both are about as clever as anything that
has been put on the market in tive years.
| There is not an inartistic thing about the
book anywhere, and it is full of unique
and delicious humor. The children who
receive il will be happy, and it ought not
to be disdained by grown people. In fact'
| it is one of those books which one might
venture to give TO a particular kind of
grown person-cne who enjoys clever
work, whether it is particularly ad-
! dressed to him or not.
! There Is verse of somewhat enig-
matical character on one page, and on
| the next a picture which explains the
| text, generally in some totally unexpected
| way. 1t would be rather good fua 10
| read the verses to a group OF children ana
| let them guess what the pictures were
like. In nine cases out of ten they w"'lid
not hit the exact truth l. would be
wrong to quote mteh of this delightful
/
| book, but there is JRe jingle about nj
| tie boy whose ancestors had all been
hung. and who, when he was naughty
was sent to the place of their hanging
| to mediate upon his sins. The point OIL
the rhyme appears when the youngster
is disclosed in picture gallery. The pic
lures are, perhaps, a shade more striking
man the verses, though both are clever
for artists who can draw figures as thor
oughly individual as these are somewhat
rarer than people who can write bright
| Itlses. There il individuality on every
page, and the artist should enjoy we'll
| deserved success in the near future. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
s2O)
"a Son of Satsuma," by Kirk Monroe.
is story for boys, full Of the incident,
adventure, and lively description charac-
teristic of this author. The scene is laid
partly in this country, partly In Sumatra,
and partly in Japan, and the time is the
year of Commodore Perry's adven- into
the Isles of the Dragonfly. The average
boy of from ten to fourteen will be likely
to approve Of the story, and incidentally
there is considerable history mixed
with the plot, which. as Il comes about
naturally, and is not dragged in by main
force, is not disadvantage. (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. si.0C)
I'm the Fairyland of America" by Her
bert Quick is a story dealing with the
little Indian spirits, the Puk-wudJies TO
whom Longfellow devoted a few stanzas
of .Hiawatha'' and then provokngly re-
signed them to oblivion. The hero OF the
tale. a small boy. meets with the little
people of the forest in a ravine near MS
fathers house, and is there led into many
adventures. 1t is a fairy-tale without
ulterior significance. and there is no at
tempt at instruction, but that will not in
lure it in the eyes of children. The IL
Iustrations. forty-three in number, ere by
e w. Derning (New York: Frederick A.
Stokes Company. 1.20)
"Urchins at the Pole" by Marie Over
ton Corbin and Charles Buxton, is non
sense fairy tale in verse, cleverly illus
trated. The verse is musical and catchy,
and the adventures described are numer-
Gus and marvellous, as they should be in
a book of this kind. (New York; Fred
erick A Stokes Company. Sl)
"Donslow's Mother Goose is the title Of
2 large. fat book with a green cover
adorned with a most frivolous looking
goose in bonnet and crinoline The effect
IS much as If one should take a washtub,
tie pink ribbons on the handles, paint it
with garlands of flowers, and set it in
parIor The homeIy rhymes to whose
sound most people have gone TO sleep in
their day are not improved by novel and
outre dressing The pictures are in four
colors, and bizarre in style, though not
inartistic The pictures would be capital
If attached to some less venerable and
age-hallowed rhymes, but as it is there
is a sort of inconsruity about them. In
addition to this the author has yentured
to change the wording OF some of the
ilngIes. and Mother Goose is like the laws
Of the Medes and Persians as regards al
teration. Perhaps 1t might do TO present
this book to a child who was not already
acquainted with the verses, but the aver
age parent would find it a source of en-
barrassment. Anybody who has had
much to do with children knows that
they want all their stories to be ''just-so
stories" and will not allow the slightest
deviation from the original text. They
are Chinese about that. Let the parent,
for example, attempt TO render Mr.. Dens-
lows version of a certain time-honored
fable about the old woman who lived in a
shoe,
She gave them some broth with plenty of bread,
She kissed them all soundly and sent them to
bed,
he win be confronted with a small and
Indignant visage popping up from the
pillow. and small voice will exclaim
reproachfully:
Don't say it that way! That isn't the
way it goes!'
Innovations are dangerous in the nurs-
cry. CNew York: Mcclure. Phillips &
Co. s1.5O)
'.The Princess of the Purple Palace"
by William Murray Graydon. is a story
of the siege of Peking, the chief char
acters being an American boy, an English
bov. and a Chinese princess. The villain
in the piece is, Of course, a Chinese gen
tlenan. and the prosecutions, terrors,
and hardships endured at his hands are
innumerable The princess and her pro-
tectors have enough hair-breadth escapes
to make them bald and every time they
get into a corner, 1t seems as If they
could not possibly get cut; but they al