CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2382, 24 December 1908, Page 9 (Supplement)

CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

One of my earliest treasures was a little book which unfolded like a tourist guide, displaying crudely-col-ored pictures, with explanatory verse. There was one picture which always filled me with delight. The verse beneath it ran :

“Oh, you naughty, spiteful Jane, Making children cry with pain! If vou live and don’t amend,

Yours will be a dreadful end.” And the picture itself showed Jane in the act of pulling a small brother’s hair, while a smaller sister howled in the corner. It was meant of course to be moral, but the little brother and sister looked such cry-babies, and Jane looked so gay and gleeful as site tugged l at the brother’s bright red hair, that instead of horror at her conduct 1 always thought she would be a jolly playfellow, and felt quite sure the little brother and sister deserved all they got. I haven’t thought about Jane for years, but to-day (says a lady writer in a recent Sydney “Telegraph”) I received a letter from a country correspondent, asking “Can you tell me the names of some nice children’s books for Christmas?” As I look at a counter full of fascin ating children’s books in one of our big bookshops my thoughts suddenly went back to that little paper book and “naughty spiteful Jane.” The contrast almost hurt, so strong it was. for surely never were children so well provided with literature of every kind as thsy are to-day, and the difficulty in making a list is not what to name, but what to leave out.

As my correspondent did not give the ages of her children, nor say whether they were girls or boys, I have made out a varied list,' which will suit all ages and tastes, and which may be useful to other mothers in the country who have no chance of choosing for themselves.

One of the most noticeable features of the juvenile books this year is the beauty of the illustrations. Nowadays the very best is not too good for the children, and wo find Arthur Rackliani, Laurence Housman, Charles Livingstone Bull, and many otlier artists of the front rank engaged in illustrating fairy stories and the like. There is a new edition of Grimm’s fairy tales, with most delightful drawings by Rackliani, which makes you regret that you have already two copies. Then there is a new edition of the “Jungle Book,” with colored pictures, which will appeal 1o every child that knows Mowgli and everyone that meets him now for the first time. There are fairy tales galore. Those young Australians whose fathers or brothers were in tins Boer war will be specially interested in a volume of South African fairy tales, which are collected from the natives, and many of which correspond to our stories, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Snowdrop and the Seven Little Men.” Then there is a delightfully illustrated volume of “Fairies I Have Met,” by Mrs. Rodolpb Stawell; “Fairies of Sorts,” by Mrs. Molesworth; and the “Fairy Ring,” a. collection of the less known tales, made by Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin. The growing interest in nature and nature study throughout the world is responsible for many charming books. “The House in the Water,” by Charles Roberts, with illustrations by Charles Livingstone Bull, is the life story of the beaver, and is a book which will appeal to older boys and girls. “Billy Boy.” by John Luther Long, as the delightful story of a little boy’s tenderness for all things that might feel. _ It is exquisitely illustrated’, and will be read with just as much pleasure by mothers as by the children. “Jock of the Bushveld” is not quite new, but to those boys wlio have not already read it its charm will be great. Then there is Miss Pedley’s evergreen book, “Dot and the Kangaroo,” half fairy tale, half nature study, which every Australian child should liavo on its bookshelf.

Indeed, there are quite a list of new books by Australian writers which should find favor for Christmas gifts. There is Ethel Turner’s new book, “That Girl,” “Bill Baillie,” the story of a bilboa, by Mrs. Ellis Rowan, with several colored drawings, by the •author; “Paradise and the Perrys,” •by Lilian Turner; “Days That Speak,” by Evelyn Goode; and. which is most noteworthy of all, “Australia,” by W. H. Lang. This comes out in the “Romance of Empire” series, with colored pictures by George Lambert, and' is the story of our own country, told simply and easily by a man who knows the country. Australia is generally accused of" having no romance; it is too new, and has grown into a nation too easily . But there is really a world of romance in the stories of the early adventurers and explorers, and Australian boys ought to be much more familiar than they' are with the names of Torres, Dampier, and Tasman, Bass, Flinders, Sturt, and Mitchell. In this new book of Mr. Lang’s the romantic history of our country is told from' the days of the old Dutch voyagers, through the times of the first settlers, the great, explorers, and the bushrangers, down to the poetry of artesian bores and our own times. It is.a book that every ohild should have,

Amongst the gift books are two anthologies of childrens verse, wnicn will be loved by tlio little ones. ‘U ne, “A Treasury of Verse for Little dren,” is delightfully illustrated m color and black and white, and contains many of the poems that our mothers knew, as well as the most modern verses. Jane Taylor, Isaac Watts, and William Blake-- appear side by side with R. L. Stevenson, Eugene Field, and Norman Gale, iho other volume, which is less expensive, is “Pinafore Palace,” and includes all the odd little nursery rhymes, old and new, which have delighted centuries of children, and are still'being learned by lisping lips. And tile little readers will be overjoyed to find that so maiiy of the rhymes they know are only half -the story, and that the other half is now to be had. All the books mentioned so far are more or less expensive, from half-a-croivli to half-a-sovereign, but there are dozens of cheaper ones. The modest sum of eiglitpence will buy some of the best stories of all, well printed on good paper, and beautifully illustrated. This “Told to the Children” series contains all the great stories of the world in childish language. There are the stories of King Arthur’s Knights, tales from the Faerie Queen, and from the Odyssey; the stories 1 of Joan of Arc, General Gordon, Nelson, Drake, and many others. as well as such child classics as “Water Babies” and “Tanglewood Tales-.” Sixpence will buy “Litle Women” and “Good Wives,” “Martin Rattler,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Feats on the Fiord,” and numerous others. For ninepence one has an extensive, choice, from ‘ ‘Robinson Crusoe” and “The Deerslayer” to “John Halifax. Gentleman,” and j Andrew Lang’s “Tales of a Fairy ! Court.” Mrs. Ewing, Jane Austin, | E. Everett Green, and Annie Swan’s f: books all come under the one shilling / list-, while in that wonderful series, f “Everyman’s Library,” nicely bound i and on good paper, can be bought ior / fifteen pence the works of such writers as • Dickens, Marryat, Defoe, Kingston, Ballantync, Lamb, and the always popular “Tom Brown’s Schooldays.” In fact there is hardly any sum so small that it will not buy a book nowadays, for there are even little books to he had for twopence and threepence. And the child who finds no book amongst his Christmas gilts this year will certainly be the victim of thoughtlessness rather than circumstance.