New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-11-19

Dewey's fairy book OF astronomy"
which she calls Star People" fthe
Houghton Mifflfn Company. appears TO a
grown-up to require the interpreting as
slsIance Of a more or less astronomical
Srown-up TO make It OF educative value
to the Youngsters. Delightfully."- Illus
trated In colors, THE Steps to Nowhere
of Grace Duffie BoyIan Cthe Baker
& Taylor Company is IN reality a flc-
ton OF the roaj to Yesterday. from
Gramercy Park in this year OF grace to
New Amsterdam, the pirate ship of
Captain Kidd and the vanished civiIiza-
ton OF the Aztecs. All this happens CO.
lncldently With the search OF a couple
Of children for their father. who IS an
engineer on the Panama Canal There
is hero measure Of real originality
mixed up with the old properties The
old idea that suggested to Dickens his
Christmas Carol forms the basis of
Miss Abbie FarweI Browns The
Christmas Angel (the Houghton Miffiin
Company. Miss Terry is a female New
England SCroOge, to whom the Christ
mas spirit is an offence and a lie. she
r-cyes II to her satisfaction by watch
ing the actions Of the people who pick
the playthings Of her own childhood as
she throws them into the street-and
then the battered papier mache angel
shat used 70 hang over the Christmas
tree long ago opens her eyes. MI.
Reginald Birch furnishes the illustra-
tons Of this very slender. very short
compliment to the shade OF Dickens.
The animal world, that powerful stimu-
lus to the imagination Of the race in It's
earliest stages. continues to claim its
annual tribute. Here. too. the old, old
stories prove OF service over and over
again, the whole body OF them from
-Esop TO Uncle Remus. The modern
nature study writers are not represented
in the group Of books here under dis
cussion. though. OF course, their influence
is traceable here and there. AS in the
fairy world, so IN this one the new in
ventions are not equal TO the old. In
Mary loss Jones's Hump Tree Stories
CSan Francisco: Paul Elder & Coz one
finds an elusive quality that promises
well for their popularity with children
In fact, the author warns her little read
ers that grown-ups have no business in
her pages. She plays a little with the
simplest facts Of natural history, but
feels no responsibility beyond that OF
amusing Only the fate of "high-hopper
grasshopper." who was so vain OF his
jumping powers that he jumped straight
into a birds beak. can be said to have
lesson attached TO il. This Is one Of
those attractiveIy made books that the
Pacific Coast occasionally sends US, with
capital drawings in black and green by
r L. Hudson. odd Mother West Wind
little. Brown & Coz sends her breezes
to protect the weak animals in the story
Of that name, in which the author, Mr.
Thornton ". Burgess, also solves such
important problems as why the skunk
wears stripes and the frog has no tail.
though the tadpoIe has. There is even
a new version Of the race between the
turtle and the hare. Mr.. Albert Bigelow
Paine has written a continuation Of his
hollow tree and deep woods people sto-
RES and called II THE Hollow Tree
Snowed-in Book CHarper & Bros.) Its
inventions are decidedly prosaic; Mr.. j.
NJ. Condos drawings remind one of
Frost's. MI. s H. Hamer's The Forest
Founding Boston: Dana Estes & Coz
is educated, not by the wolf pack, but
by the squirrel the owl and the fox. He
learns much from them and about them,
protects them against their enemies.
chief among them man, and ultimately
goes TO live with his own people. 4
70 4 2 HE cfnr.-