FOR YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 3

FOR YOUNG READERS

YOUR GARDENING BOOK (Faber. 72 pp.) written and illustrated by Cyril Cowell, who has a well-known illustrated gardening feature in a London Sunday newspaper, is an excellent book for stimulating the interest of young folk in gardening and showing them how to produce worthwhile plants. The instructions are clear and the illustrations, which occur on nearly every page, most helpful. It is a comparatively simple matter for New Zealand children to add on six months each time when using the charts in the appendix for the sowing and planting of flowers a|id vegetables.

‘JUDY’S AND ANDREW’S BOOK OF BEES (Faber. 39 pp.) by Muriel Goaman, illustrated by Hazel Cook, is for those children who may be moved to keep bees either at home or at school. The habits of the honeybee and the elements of beekeeping are expounded simply and clearly by an author whose series of practical books for children are already well known. Whole generations of adult literate New Zealand men were raised on a reading diet of which the actionpacked adventure stories of G. A. Henty were a principal ingredient. Now Latimer House, of London, are producing an attractive series of Henty’s reprints. Three well-known titles now available are WITH WOLFE IN CANADA, REDSKIN AND COWBOY, and CORNET OF HORSE. All three are true to the Henty label--good writing, strong plot, colourful (and authentic) historical background. Many of the 1953 waiters of children’s books might be wise to have another look at the Henty recipe, It is still attractive. Detectives have a fascination for all small boys, and most fascinating of all is a plausibly-written story about a boy who himself solves a pretty problem in crime detection. BILL HOLMES AND THE RED PANTHERS, by Fielden Hughes (Oxford University Press), is a further bright extract from the romantic life of William (Deerstalker) Holmes, surely the most promising amateur detective ever produced in Wimbledon. Brisk, wellwritten stuff to appeal to boys 11 and up to 16 or so. WILLIAM AND THE TRAMP, by the popular Richmal Crompton (Dymocks Book Arcade), is the latest saga in the “William” series, which has an extraordinary following among small and bigger boys. The formula is as entertaining as ever. Miss Crompton has a keen ear for schoolboy dialogue, and a pretty choice both in plot and humour.