YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 3

YOUNG READERS

ROUNDABOUT, by Alison Winn (Brockhampton Press. 39 pp.), is a collection of short stories and verses. They are intended to be read aloud to young children of four to six years. Older children may like to read them for themselves. The stories are about children and animals and have for their topics everyday activities such as making toffee apples, birthday surprises, getting into mischief, earning pocketmoney, a visit to the zoo, and so on. They are slight and the tone is cosy and more than a little coy. The book is. however, nicely produced with large print and there are pleasant illustrations by Peggy Fortnum. Alison Winn’s verses have been broadcast on the BBC. “Listen With Mother” programmes.

Three new Odhams picture books are: “Treasury of Eastern Tales,” a collection translated from the Italian and illustrated in bold style and striking colour by Cremonini; “Birds and Beasts of Field and Jungle” takes the reader on a pictorial journey on which he sees, in their natural colours, representative birds and beasts of a dozen countries; the “WonderWorld of Knowledge” is a contemporary and colourful assembly, in letterpress and drawing, of facts about people, places, ideas, and events.

There would not be so many complaints about the reading habits of youngsters were there more volumes available of the quality of STIRRING STORIES FOR BOYS, published by Odhams Press. This is a very fine collection, running to 319 pages, of stories by competent and, in some cases, talented authors. There are some familiar names in the index—C. S. Forester. Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood among them. Many of the other authors, such as Captain W. E. Johns, are already firm favourites with boys. The collection is the best possible answer and antidote to the surfeit of comic strips. In the last few years the Oxford University Press has published an excellent folk tale series, of which CHINESE MYTHS AND FANTASIES. by Cyril Birch, is the latest. Almost a dozen of this excellent series is now available and the attraction of the simple stories is not restricted to children.