BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
The Children Who Followed the Piper, by Padraic Colum (12mo, 142 pages, illustrated by Dugald Walker; Macmillan: $1.75) is a beautiful piece of work. It starts with the story of Hamelin, "but it is right for me to say that this is only the beginning of my story" and the rest is told with the authentic soft voice of the story-teller, the true feeling for the elements of beauty and surprise, and with a great distinction of manner. Like the other books by Mr Colum it is a masterpiece, for all the necessary elements are ideally woven together.
The Adventures of Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, adapted by Edwin Gile Rich (Illus., 8vo, 287 pages; Small, Maynard: $2) is a very well gotten up volume adapted to the interests of children. The illustrations, in colour, are done with a certain humorous désinvolture quite in keeping with the spirit of the original. The adapter is to be congratulated on the peculiarly inoffensive way he has gone about his task: the story is left to emerge vigorously. Among those books which it is part of a parent's moral obligation to place before a child, Don Quixote is one of the first; while the appealing arrangement of this volume gives it an added claim to candidacy.
The Story of Jesus, pictures from paintings by Giotto, Fra Angelico, Duccio, Ghirlandaio, Barna da Siena, and Gentile da Fabriano, descriptive text from the New Testament, compiled by Ethel Nathalie Dana (4to, unnumbered; Marshall Jones: $16.50). The compiler of this volume has very evidently worked on the sound principle that children are appetites without tastes, that they—unlike the mature public—will accept good stuff as willingly as poor. The old method of pedagogy was to debase, vilify, and stultify until something was produced which, heaven knows why, was deemed the right thing for fresh young minds. The present volume, however, trusts that the work of old masters can manage to vie in interest with cheap pious illustrations. Thus, the life of Christ is pictured by early Christian paintings. The compiler has made excellent choices: the landscapes are happy and fanciful, the incidents are simple and arresting. And were not such pictures, after all, especially designed for childish minds? . . . Incidentally, the art being there, it is by this method imbibed painlessly.
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting (12mo, 364 pages, illustrated by the author; Stokes: $2.50) continues what has apparently become a classic for children—i.e., a book their elders have decidedly heard about. It is grave nonsense and gentle humour and a strain of inventiveness, which does not, however, go as far as the names, only some of which are amusing. Children will like it because it keeps always one half step ahead of them, and they will fancy they are walking out with their agreeable elders.
