MICE AND MEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 437, 7 November 1947, Page 16

MICE AND MEN

STUART LITTLE. By E. B. White. -Hamish Hamilton, London. THEY SAIL AT SUNRISE. By Marjorie Rixson. Georgian House, Melbourne. ‘THESE two books have not much in common except that both are written for children and "both adopt the device, common in books for children, of attributing human characteristics to animals. Stuart Little, the diminytive hero of E. B. White’s pleasant tale, is plainly a mouse in size and appearance, but he has beén endowed, by a biological process which need concern the reader as little as it appears to concern the author, with human parents, a human brother named George, and many of the privileges belonging to a member of a well-to-do family resident in New York. "The doctor was delighted with Stuart (when he was born) and said that it was very unusual for an American family to have a mouse," The author maintains this elaborate fiction with a great deal of skill and considerable charm: as he~grows towards young man-mousehood Stuart Little is involved in all kinds of. pleasant encounters and exciting adventures @nd everybody, except the cat, is well disposed towards him. Eightyseven line illustrations by Garth Williams add to the attractiveness of the. book. Children between six and 10 are the target aimed at by Marjorie Rixson in (continued on next page) . _

fr (continued: from previous page) y* They Sail at Sunrise. Here there are ‘\ dual heroes-a rat and a platypus, who go voyaging after strange adventures, and find them among mermaids, green witches, and kings and princesses in The Land of Heart’s Desire. This is much more orthodox fantasy than the other story, but both Ratty and Platty have an independent, matter-of-fact manner which is, perhaps, accounted for by their Australian origin. Again, number of illustrations. this time by ‘oan Turner, embellish the story.