CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1925, 6 December 1913, Page 10

CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

[BY IMOGEN',]

'SOME PAVOUKITfi FAIRY TALES

"Come away, 0 human child! Jo tlic waters and the wild, With u iairy hand in hand, I'or tho world's more full of weepitn til,'in you can understand." —W. B. Yeals. The child is indeed coining into hij kingdom, for never before, ' "in tho •memory of tho oldest inhabitant," have ins needs and his pleasures been tho subject ot_ so much thought., so much nnderstandiug, and so -.much subtle, com-pu-.cship as at the- present time. One las only to visit the toy shops, and, above #11, the book shops, to realise now greatly his claim upon the world ■oi men and women is being responded ro ami with what oajser, though soir*n, times fliflidonl, interest it lays ita laurels at his shrine. Nothing now is too good for tho child, no sacrifico too s: f, at hq.miule, and one of tiio rebulls ,01 this tendency of tho limes i-3 to simply food our literature with books tor children-—books that aro often a delight to their ciders, so full -are they ot light fantasy, of instinctive poetry, O! Jwtnro knowledge, and of cveriasU «ig youth,

. | hose ivno write for children -must mileed have kept fresh in their tho .everlasting child. Their eves mu« still look out with wonder on ;l wondrous world and not yet have become, used to the stupendous marvel -of a starlit jjigM or the yearly miracle o? spring. Still must they seo the fairies' iootslopsin green meadows, hear the •pipes of .Pan among tho .rushes, and the /lowers talking m the forest." it In such as theso who have the entry into tlio exclusive, circle within which ii guarded the friendship and tho fellowship of children.

In spite of the multitude of hooka tliafc are now appearing, and delightful' though many ol them are, oiio cannot turn ono's baelt upon the old immortal favourites, and were there to bo no moro children's books published, tho world would si ill be rich with what was left. Much of life is dull, prosaic and colourless, but. with the golden key of imagination is opened the door that, leads into the land of Heart's Desire, of Tir-na-ogue, where dreams come trno and lifo is jived in a many-coloured world, fall of flowers and music and singing birds, of unimaginable delight:! and of marvellous companionships'. Some there arc'who find chinks in the walls of the cage that shuts us iil so cJoselv. and through these chinks they hold perpetual intercourse with si' world invisible to their fellows, a world

in which the sky is far, far bluer, in which the sunshine is more warmly, more deeply golden, .uid in which is heard tin murmuring voices of a host of dimlyseen, lialf-gnossed-at presences. It is they who brighten the world with the beauty ot' their rainbow coloured dream;-, with the magic of tlieir music and tho spell of tlifir poetry and their vision!?. Of these people who have pliisipseci this hidden world must most assuredly b.r»lraml3ffl'od the writers, of the old, old fairy tales, and some too, of those of of to-day who have written for the children. for they, too, have seen between tho bars and sensed tho unseen universe about them. Long ago in the deep twilight of (no youth of the ' world,' num and women were nearer to tho mysteries of Natnro than they are now: they knew her Inn•rnago and felt- her thoughts and rested like little children in the immensity of her bc-iug and the immutability of hrr laws, and so to-day wo have left of them myths and legends and fairy tales, shadowy links of a world that is now swallowed up in mist and darkness.

A striki'iiy; thins in oonnectiim with the reproductions of old fairy stories is the way iu which they aiie illustrated. The artists have had exquisite ami often most fantastic material to work upon and tlicy have in many cases been seized with the haunting charm of the fairy world into which they entered and have pictured it as it made itself felt to them. Some exquisite work is to lm seen in the Hans Anderson's books that have been illustrated by Kdiifvind Dnlac. It noes without saying, at tlio mero mention of his name, that there in beautiful colouring and. much is pictured of the Oriental world in which lfc takes so deep a delight. It is nut the colouring and the imagination hn displays that delight so much as his interpretation or the fantasies in tha stories. In "Tlio Mermaid" one of tho most beautiful and most poignantly pathetic of all linns Anderson's beaniiful stories, tho pictures aro exquisite, and so they aro in the "Sims,' Queen," while the pictures In "The Hmpcror" are full of Oriental richness nt' colouring. Diikro has also illustrated tlio Arabian Nights Kntertaimncnt, where again is _ given free scope for his fantastic imagination and lave for tlio Orient. Vet another illustrated by him is tiio book of French Fairv Talcs in which arc to be found litany of the dclmhtu of one's childhood, Tlio' "Water Habici" .is eharmiiiijly illustrated by Catherine Cameron, so charmingly that half the small .people ctto knows might be seized with a wild desire to plfiugo into the cool depths of the streams and rivers in their vicinity to sec for themselves tho delightful world that is pictured for them in its paces. There is much of Arthur Rackhams's work to ho seen-''Peter Pan." "Kin Van Winkle/' "Grimm's Fairy Tab"'." etc., and he has in addition il- ! iustratesl "Siegfried " "The- Rhinegold," ! and several other books, now 111 tlio bookslioos. LadhrooUe Black's "Com-, pietc Story of Mother Hubbard" is illustrated by Dudley Toniiant, and since the Mother Hubbard stories wore fascinating enough without tho picture;-, it can easily be awlerstood that iis at* tractions would not lose by bavin;; them. John Hassall, too, has thought it worth while to illustrate "Mother Goose," wliile "Alice in Wonderland," with pictures that arc the work of Lucie Mabel Attwell could not fail to be a source of pleasure ta many children. To «ive a child hooks that aro beautifully illustrated is to be;jiii straight way with the cultivation of a love fin the beautiful, and tlwuiih it may mean a great reduction in the number thai arc given, there would probably be a corresponding gain.

Captain Wilfred Montague Bruco, who v.-.:is a member ot Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition of IUJO, is shortly to bo married to Miss Dorothy .Boot, daughter of Sir Jesse ami Lady Boot, of N'ottingham, states an Australian uaner. Tho prospective bridegroom is a brother of. Lady Scott, and tiro younger sou of tho late Canon Lloyd fetuavt Br ACQ. Probably from to-day rrfrei.bror.ts for specials will ho served in the Harbour Board's building dose to tho book-, stall on the Quern's Wharf, instead of in K Shed; adjoining. At night tlia rooms will be used as a reisUiig.plnco for foot specials, and during tho day for the mounted men, who arc pwrdinj; the entrance Is) UlO Qvieen's Wharf, ne well as for the dismovmifd, who are on duty on the wharf. Whilst Ihankiu*', nil those ki»d citizens who ha.vr; ioi't parcels of seniles, etc,, Uso ladies in charge wish flit parcels to he addressed "Quran's Wharf Depot, for Specials." The new rooms are warm and well lighted, and an _ improvement in every w;iy on F. Siled, in which hm: been done such j;ood work for weeks past.