The sun., 1904-12-10
Books for Girls.

ne OslgnUul pictures
Books for Girls.
-Janet's College Career by Amy E..
Blanchard George W. Jacobs & Coz. is
arecord of very popular girls experience
in story book sort of college. where young
maidens are allowed to live in lodgings and
to go out unattended in carriages at night,
to meet with adventures which are not
usually included in any girls college course.
The chapters on the dormitory life. the
harmless hazing, the fraternity teas, the
'dramatics" and general frolicsome mis-
chief have the ring OF the real thing, they
are so mildly, gently, innocuous. But
with the introduction Of the Hero things
get complicated, and the situations are un-
natural. or course, the Hero always does
mix things up in books, and out Of them.
That is what he Is for But he is usually
kept tied and muzzIed until college careers
are finished, ami not allowed to hvaCe
the sacred precincts Of learning with his
demoralizing presence. Janet is a very
nice girl, unspoiled, uuselflsh, and favorite
everywhere-just the kind Of girl that
would be leader in the fun and frolic OF
college life and quite satisfied without
any hero at all to bother her. Girls in
college would like Janet, but girls who have
never been to college and don't know too
much about it will probably get most satis-
faction out Of her experiences as they are
related in Miss Blanchard's book.
THE Doings OF Nancy by Evelyn Ray
mond Dana Estes d Coz are just the sort
Of heroic and well rewarded exploits with
which fiction abounds and which are 80
interesting to read about in books because
they 40 rarely happen out Of them. Nancy
Is a very bonnie, very brave little girl, and
in spots a very natural one, but she has
been made to cultivate bad habit Of spring.
Ing 'Limericks' on the reader that no little
girl OF 70 could possibly think Of offhand.
Nancy has 'step-aunt-mother" OF the
rev school-a dear, patient, overworked
woman, who mothers her dead sisters
children tenderly. IL somewhat ineffectu-
ally on account Of her own indiscretions in
accumulating a small brood Of "A B d"
boys-Adrian, Bertram. Claude and Dom
tid-not to mention a baby, Solomon, Of
her own with unseomly haste for a woman
who has married a poor man with two
children already in stock. 1t is encourag-
ing to find that the ghost Of the cruel step
''SNhei WIZ Hds pOisOucu all IOic
and perverted the minds OF little readers
throughout the ages is laid at last, and that
the stepmother martyr is finally being
measured for the halo she has so long de-
t,rved.
Nancy's own brother having been in
iured at football, most OF the alphabetical
stepbrothers being down with measles,
the father out Of work and out OF money
certainly the decks may be said to be cleared
Tor action and ready for Nancy to come
forward and do the heroic. All Of which she
does in beautiful old garden under the
dlspensation OF a sweet old gentlewomen
who teaches her and will teach all the little
girls who read about her the proper botanical
name for flowers after the latest approved
fashion. There is always pill in the jam
for modern child readers and stiff
Latin name waiting around the corner
TO be grappled with before they can 90 on
With the simplest story. Nancy encounters
beautiful 'spook the kind that will
make the little girls who read about Il
afraid to 60 to bed at highland he proves
to be the long lost brother who Is always
turning up In fiction since the time OF Lohen-
grin, makes everybody happy In the good
od way In the last act, especially Nancy,
who goes singing out Of the book as she
came singing into Il with fresh hot @Lin-
sick' en- her lips.
'Talitha Cumi' by Annie J. Holland
Nothrop, Lee a Shepard, as it's name
would imply is q story written for the pur-
pose Of exploiting Christian Science theories
TO the understanding Of the Juvenile mind.
The story Is occupied with the annals of
family Of Ave sisters each fair and beauti-
iul, except the heroine Penelope who is
hopelessly ugly and DIR. .a'eo, A friend
Presents her with q abraham enoe and
Health which she studies dss.Sently and
brings about her own permanent cure.
The deformed back is Strengthened, the
retarded growth Is developed and she
becomes the most beautiful Of all the sisters
In person and In character. II reads like
one OF the old time fairy tales and viii no
doubt have . wide circulation In the seot
whose tenets 1t illustrates, but II would be