YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25923, 1 October 1949, Page 3

YOUNG READERS

Frances Frost's LEGENDS OF THE UNITED NATIONS (George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. 248 pp.) is a collection of about 50 stories—folk-tales and fairy-tales—from the riches of seventeen countries: Demeter and Persephone from ancient Greece beside Dick Whittington, Poland’s St. Stanislaw and the Wolf beside Australia’s aboriginal tale of Wayambeh the Turtle. It may seem to be aiming high “to give children and grown-ups a conception of the essential spirit of the countries . . . allied in the fight for freedom”; but it is an aim well on the way to that, and fully reached, to demonstrate as this book happily ' does that children cross all frontiers of politics and time when a tale is told. AFTER WILLIAM . . . The popularity of Miss Richmal Crompton’s stories of William still spreads, and will; but William has a rival, her creation too. JIMMY (Dymock’s Book Arcade Ltd. 272 pp. Through Oswald-Sealy [N.Z.I Ltd..) is the first of a new series. Lunt Roberts is the illustrator. Jimmy begins like a boy who will go far. HOLIDAY In THE CRANSTONS AT SANDLY BAY (Hollis and Carter, 186 pp.) Phyllis I. Norris turns to the old theme of a holiday that looks like being a flop and becomes a winner, and makes a good, lively story of it. Mollie Kaye is the illustrator. ON THE FARM D. H. Chapman’s “Farmer Jim” is continued in THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF FARMER JIM (George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. 159 pp). in which a wide and intelligently drawn background of farming life and work is enlivened with well varied incidents—and excellent company. Elizabeth Wright’s drawings are exceedingly good. STRANGEWAYS Jon and Penelope, sent to stay with an uncle while their parents move into a new house, find that Strangeways has plenty of exciting and amusing experiences to offer them —including home-made fireworks, which the reader of Jocelyn Brooke’s THE WONDERFUL SUMMER (John Lehmann Ltd. 142 pp.) can learn how to make' one of the many rewards of a good story. It is illustrated by Ley Kenyon. BEAR CUB Jan Vlasak and Josef Seget, in SNOW WHITE (William Hodge and Co Ltd. 88 pp.) tell the life-story of a Polar bear cub, brought up (while the Germans occupied Prague) in the flat of the first of the two, who was superintendent of the Prague zoo. (This was the first time, so far as is known, a Polar bear has been successfully reared by human fosterparents.) The story is told with a lively sense of animal character and with delightful precision in detail; and the many photographs reinforce both merits. ENID BLYTON MY ENID BLYTON BEDSIDE BOOK (Arthur Barker Ltd. 160 pp.) is a collection of stories by a general favourite among writers for children. There are, besides, some pages of picture puzzles, set in neat rhymes, and one or two poems; and the illustrator has a large share of the credit. OFFICERS’ HORSES Among the many horse books published recently, RIDING: A GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS (John Lehmann Ltd. 158 pp.), by Major-General Eric Harrison, will not satisfy pony club aspirants and beginners of all ages, who, here in New Zealand, would like to receive just one suited to their small purses, their large paddocks, and their often non-existent or primitive stables. Major-General Harrison .has been a master of fox-hounds and has had a long and wide experience of horses in England and in India; but that is just the sort of experience of most of the other officer-class writers—Hance, Goldschmidt, McTaggart, Stewart, Hitchcock, Goldingham and Summerhays, all of whom have rather more to offer in their books than Major-General Harrison. His best chapter is the last one, on riding to hounds; this is obviously his passion and consequently the chapter is

lively and full of useful advice. The book is illustrated with drawings by John Board. These are moderately good, but much less effective than first-class photographs.