FOR YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28512, 15 February 1958, Page 3

FOR YOUNG READERS

THE MEDENHAM CARNIVAL, by Norman Dale (Hamish Hamilton) is the latest book in the excellent Reindeer series for readers under 11. The story is about a group of children who take part in the town’s carnival procession. Their exhibit is the Medenham monster, and they win first prize for being funny and clever. During their preparations for the carnival, they help the police .to find a bicycle thief who turns out to be a pathetic criminal. The story, pleasant and easy to read, is great fun from beginning to end and the drawings by Prudence Seward are delightful.

CHILD OF THE WESTERN ISLES is written and illustrated by .Rosalie Fry (Dent) for eight to 10-year-olds. When Flora McConville returned to the Western Isles of Scotland to live with her grandparents, she sets about clearing up*'the mystery surrounding her little brother Jamie’s disappearance years before. She was convinced that Jamie was still alive and the story of how her courage and faith were rewarded forms the subject of this fascinating and sensitive story in which fantasy is blendgd with reality in a way that will be entirely acceptable to young readers.

THE SPRING OF THE YEAR by Elfrida Vipont (0.U.P.) is a sequel to her two earlier books, THE LARK IN THE MORN and THE LARK ON THE WING, the latter a Carnegie medal winner. This story is about Laura Haverard, niece to Kit, the heroine of the earlier books. The title is intended to suggest that momentous events happen to the Haverards in the spring of the year. They move from Oxford to the village of St. Merlyon in the spring; in the spring, Laura meets Kate Whittaker who is to become a formative influence on her character; in the spring, Laura sits for her examination and again it is in the spring that she distinguishes herself as Ariel in “The Tempest.” This book is not for every child. The Quaker religion is more to the fore than in the other books and much of the Haverard family’s life is centred on their i church. In ’addition, one of the central themes of the book—the difference in status between the English grammar school and the secondary modern, based on the results of 11 plus examination, needs to be aired but is, fortunately, outside the experience of New Zealand school children. Apart from these two qualifications, the book has a great deal to recommend it. There is richness in Elfrida Vipont’s writing. Laura is a complex little girl. She is capable but often conceited and lazy, and in suffering from the consequences of over-estimat-ing her abilities she learns to appreciate her true worth and to discover values more real in life, rhe gradual unfolding of Laura’s character would, be full of interest to the perceptive and sensitive girl of ten and over.