FOR YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29016, 3 October 1959, Page 3

FOR YOUNG READERS

THE SILVER MAN, by Catherine Anthony Clark (Macmillan, 231 pp.), is a haunting and original story of Indian tribal magic. Ten-year-old Gilbert Steyne, an orphan who lives with his aunt in Victoria, British Columbia, is on the point of running away to the cattle ranch where he was brought up, but his intention is forestalled by a visit to the museum. Here he comes across an Indian relic, a crystal held in a bird’s claw, and in gazing at it he is dazzled . . . and is

whirled into another world. His coming is in answer to the shaman Eagle-Bone’s magic rites and he is therefore destined to help recover the young chief Kunshat of the Bird Tribe from the fiery touch of the Wild Woman and the freezing clutches of the Mountain King. Before his mission is ended he has many extraordinary experiences, many trials to endure and .hardships to suffer, ail of which reconcile him to his life when he returns from the spirit world. This is a story full of lively invention and “strong magic” from the New World. The book is beautifully produced and well illustrated by Clare Bice. PACIFIC PLUNDER, by David Gammon (Nelson, 218 pp.), is the story of a treasure hunt in the Celebes Sea. The day that the dying man and his native companion are washed up in a rotting boat, Peter Rodney, the 14-year-old visitor and Gary Tennant, his uncle, are caught up at once in the hunt. There is a gang of roughs after the treasure, too, and there are many hitches before the treasure is found.

PETERS FOR PETS, by Hilda Sinopy (Max Parrish, 110 pp.) is a somewhat sentimental little story about an old man’s pet shop. Several animals are given prominence in the tale; Sally the cat, Boxer the dog, Bepfio the monkey and a rare blue mouse. Sally steals a stuffed parrot, Boxer catches a thief all by himself, Beppo entertains the school-children and the blue mouse escapes. Mr Peters makes a success of his shop and retires with his cousin to a seaside cottage. It is an aimable if undistinguished story and all the awkward situations that arise are happily managed.

Devotees of Viola Bayley’s books will be glad to meet again in this new story, SWEDISH ADVENTURE (Dent. 180 pp.), the same set of young people who were the main characters of “Paris Adventure” and “Corsican Adventure.” George O’Brien CGino), a Swedish-American by birth, invites the young Marriotts for a holiday to his mother’s little seaside house near Gothenburg in Sweden. Almost immediately on their arrival an adventure begins and before their holiday is over they are all involved in helping a refugee from Soviet Russia. The plots of Viola Bayley’s adventure books are usually highly coloured and this is no exception. But she is a competent writer and her style is brisk. The story moves swiftly to an exciting climax, and at the same time is full of interesting details of the ancient sagas and history of the Swedes. The background descriptions of Sweden and Finland are very good indeed.

THE REAL BOOK OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, by Irving Block (Dennis Dobson, “Real Books” series, 187 pp.), traces the life of Columbus from his boyhood to his death. This is no heroic version. Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, is presented as an ambitious, ruthless, and self-willed tyrant. At the same time, Mr Block treats his hero sympathetically so that the pathos of his stubborn illusion that he has discovered a new route to the Asian Continent is fully realised. Though the man was inordinately vain and greedy for honours and riches, he suffered many disappointments, insults and physical hardships with real courage. This book is successful, too, from another angle. The mediaeval world in which Columbus lived comes wholly alive. The life of the streets, the wharves, the shops, the royal courts and the inhabitants of the New World are described in detail. And so are the ships of the fleet, the crew and the voyages. This competent and rewarding book carries an index and a bibliography. It deserves a more inviting format and a better illustrator FLOWERS FROM CAROLINE, by Pamela Mansbridge (Dent, 159 pp.), is a sequel to “A Crime for Caroline” and involves the same characters, the Lesters and Caroline, the rich young amateur girldetective. The story is poorly constructed, switching midway from Derek Lester’s viewpoint to Caroline’s. It opens with Derek landing in hospital after a misadventure on his bicycle. Here he makes friends with an elderly invalid who has a story about money hidden in his cottage. The Lester children and, later, Caroline, take over the search and the mystery is revealed at length in an unexpected manner. There is good dialogue and one funny scene.

ANDY FINDS A WAY, by M. Hurt, (Nelson, 183 pp.) has very much an air of being turned out to be a prescription in which there are some “baddies” who are eventually brought to justice by the girl heroine herself. There is some attempt at building up a character for Andy who gets into trouble with her holiday hosts for telling tall stories in which she always shines. Otherwise the story is slow in working up its laboured climax in which Andy does some amateur detective work in tracking down a gang of bicycle thieves. The drawing is from Mary D. Kellaway’s story for young children titled "Happy Day” and published by Hutchinson.

Students and teachers will welcome the new edition of Frederick E. Zeuner's THE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD, published by Hutchinson. This exhaustive study of the glacial period was first published in a limited edition in 1945, since when it has been sought as a rich mine of authentic information.