light Roloson. And here, too, must come in "Fortune's Boats," by Barbara Yechton (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). It is hard to say whether it is a story for the oldest of children or for the youngest of grown people.

But these books are all for girls, of whatever age, and for girls a little younger is "Brenda, Her School and Her Club," a story about Boston school girls, by Helen Leah Reed, with pictures much better than the average by Jessie Willcox Smith (Little, Brown & Co.). "Reels and Spindles," by Evelyn Raymond (W. A. Wilde Co.), is about a girl who had seen better days, but was not dismayed by "The

worse ones.

66

Kinkard Venture," by Kate W. Hamilton (Pilgrim Press), is a temperance story. Randy's Summer," by Amy Brooks (Lee & Shepard), is a simple story of children's country life. There are ten illustrations by the author.

Another girl who took her own fate in her hands and accomplished things is the subject of "Almost as Good as a Boy," by Amanda M. Douglas (Lee & Shepard). "Pretty Polly Perkins," by Gabrielle E. Jackson (Century Co.), is not only about a pretty girl, but is a pretty book-extremely so-inside and out. And

it has pretty pictures by C. M. Relyea. The girl of astonishing enterprise is again present in "Phebe, Her Profession," a sequel to "Teddy, Her Book," by Anna Chapin Ray (Little, Brown & Co.). The book is cleverly and entertainingly written. Then there is another clever girl told about in "Miss Nonentity," by L. T. Meade (Lippincott). It has good illustrations by W. Rainey.

Six little books in the Sunshine Library (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.) have mighty pretty covers, though their delicate tints may suffer when little hands get hold of them. There are persons who have so many negative rules for the bringing up of children that they could never be carried out except by putting the children into barrels and feeding them through the bungholes. It has been remarked that

From "A Georgian Bungalow."

children ought not to have books that tell of children's mischief, because they can think of enough of it for themselves. This suggestion would be valid, if at all, against "Half a Dozen Thinking Caps," by Mary F. Leonard; but, then, it would be valid, too, against "Tom Sawyer"-in fact, that was the book about which it was made. Anybody could guess which of these two could be the more easily spared.

"SHE STARTED OFF QUICKLY"

"Half a Dozen Thinking Caps" is harmless. "The Christmas Tree Scholar," by Frances Bent Dillingham, contains a number of short stories about days of the year. The other books are "The Play Lady, a story for other girls," by Ella Farman Platt; "Aunt Hannah and Seth," by James Otis; "Playground Toni," by Anna Chapin Ray, and "Divided Skates," by Evelyn Raymond.

"Two Little Street Singers" is a story of the misfortunes and final fortunes of a poor little boy and a poor little girl, by Nora A. M. Roe, published by Lee & Shepard.

Thoughts of "The Prisoner of Zenda" and the coronation of the Queen of Holland are prompted by "A Child of Glee and How She Saved the Queen," by A. G. Plympton (Little, Brown & Co.). It shows how a story for large people needs only remoulding to make it fit for small people. The Queen is to be kidnapped and a little American girl saves the situation by taking her place, not among her people, as in

"The Prisoner of Zenda," but as the person to be stolen. The story is prettily told and there are a few attractive pictures by Harry C. Edwards There is humor of a quiet sort in "A Georgian Bungalow," by Frances Courtenay Baylor (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The characters are an English family living on a plantation in Georgia and the negroes of the neighborhood. The author has the faculty of making inconsequential things entertaining, and that is the necesary faculty for such a work.

"The Middle Five," by Francis La Flesche (Small, Maynard & Co.), has a different interest from that of any other of all the books. It is a few little sketches of the life, the work, the studies and the amusements of the Indian boys of a western mission school, and it is written by one of them. It is simply and brightly written and it shows, more than anything else, that Indian boys are a good deal like other boys. It is likely to be more interesting to grown persons than to children, who probably would not be attracted by the ethnological point just mentioned. Another Indian story, not written by one of them, is "Jack among the Indians," by George Bird Grinnell (Stokes). It is an agreeable account of a boy's summer among the tribes of the North, hunting buffalo and other game.

་་

T. Y. Crowell & Co.

To boys of a mechanical turn two books by Dan C. Beard, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, will be mines of possibilities, with large deposits of probabilities. "The Outdoor Handy Book" is a new, and enlarged edition of "The American Boy's Book of Sport." It is a compendious collection of hints on all sorts of things. that ought to interest out-door boys. Marbles, tops, kites, hoops, stilts, fishing,

boating, butterfly collecting, swimming, bicycling, foot-ball, golf, hockey, shinny, skating, and coasting are only a few of the subjects treated historically, scientifically and popularly, the others being too many even to mention. How any one man could invent or find out so many diverting devices as are in "The Jack of All Trades" is as great a puzzle as any in the book. It tells boys clearly how to

make a perfect multitude of useful and amusing things, and if any boy should go through it he would have an enormous deal of fun and incidentally come out a skilled mechanic.

"The Century Book of the American Colonies," by Elbridge S. Brooks (Century Co.), tells of the founding of the colonies along the Atlantic coast, and has nearly two hundred pictures. There is an introduction by Frederick J. De Peyster, Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars. Accounts of the latest possessions of the United States are given in "Greater America" (Perry Mason & Co.), a collection of articles from "The Youth's Companion." The book describes Porto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, etc., and tells how each came under the American flag.

A really charming book is "In the Days of Alfred the Great," by Eve March Tappan. (Lee & Shepard.) It tells of the life of one of the noblest men who ever lived in a simple way which ought to interest all right-minded children, and grown persons as well. "The Treasury Club," by William Drysdale (W. A. Wilde Co.), tells in an interesting manner, and in the form of a story, of the work of the Treasury Department of the United States Government.

The "St. Nicholas Book of Plays and

Operettas" will be a most useful acquisition to those who try to manage parlor and other small amateur entertainments. The plays which it contains have been printed in "St. Nicholas" from time to time in the last twenty-six years, and some of them have long been favorites. Probably "The Modern and Medieval Ballad of Mary Jane" is the best shadow pantomime ever devised, and the book contains other things almost as good.

Finally come the big, flat picture books, along with some not quite so big, but quite as flat. This "flat" refers literally to the shape of the books, not figuratively to their contents. One of the best of them all is "A Hand book of Golf for Bears," by Hayden Carruth, with pictures by Frank Verbeck (Russell). It is in the form of an al phabet and of course recalls A. B. Frost's book, but even if it is an imitation, it can be forgiven, because it is so funny. It is not easy to say why it should have been "for bears," unless because the artist liked to draw bears, and indeed they are funny beasts. Another book, to whose cleverness it is hardly necessary to call attention, is Gelett Burgess's "Goops and How to Be Them," a Manual of Manners for Polite Infants (Stokes).

Some of the verses have previously been published in St. Nicholas. "Nanny," by T. E. Butler (Russell), is a book about a goat which ate up things and people who became "perfectly furious." You can read the book through in three minutes, but it will take you longer than that to enjoy all the fun of the pictures.

Little, Brown & Co.