CHRISTMAS IS COMING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS IS COMING.

The first few scattered drops of the usual shower of Christmas books for presentation to children have now come to us. Of these one of the best is "Who's Who in tho Zoo," by J. B. Morton and Cccil Aldin (Eyre and Spottiswoode). Mr. Aldin's pen and ink animal drawings are not only lifelike, but have character and expression which make them remarkable and more attractive even than photographs. Many of these drawings aro really suitable for framing and exhibition not possible in a book. Mr. Aldin must bo a lover of animals and fully in sympathy with them. Mr. Morton's humorous verses accompanying tho pictures should please young people, and tho general appearance of the volume makes it a handsome gift. Next to the above comes the illustrated history of "Jacko," by Brooke Nicliolls (Angus and Robertson), Jacko being the tame kookaburra of Australia, who has made gramophone records, appeared often in public, and been heard by thousands of peoplo over the radio. This bird is trained to laugh to order (at a signal), and has been a most popular pet. Not long ago we reviewed the life and adventures of a tame lyre bird, and as the platypus and kangaroo also have their historians, and tho koala is known far and wide as the "teddy bear," Australia's most wonderful birds and animals aro no longer strange to those who have any interest in tho fauna of tho great continent. Mr. Nicliolls makes natural history more than usually familiar to youthful minds by pretending that Jacko has dictated his own story. Dorothy Walls' comical drawings illume the text.