FOR YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 3

FOR YOUNG READERS

Madicken. By Astrid Undgrom. Oxford University Press. 142 pp.

Because the quality of children's books is mixed and because a big proportion are in the middle bracke<t, really good ones shine. This one from Sweden justifies the publishers' claim that it will entrance children, although mothers may shake their heads at the escapades of Madicken (christened Margarets). She jumps off the wash-house roof with an umbrella ’’as they did in the war” and gets concussion “which is not so bad as being dead.” She plays Moses in the bulrushes but both Moses and Pharaoh’s daughter are fished out with a boatbook.

High Challenge. By Maria Kirchgessner. Macmillan and Co. 287 pp.

Translated from the German, this is a charming book for girls in their early teens. Four friends found an abandoned hut in the mountains while they were ski-ing. The story concerns their efforts to restore it as a chalet. The setting is one of high peaks and high challenge in the Bavarian Alps, altogether healthy and uplifting. Clemency Draper. By Frank Knight. Macmillan and Co. 222 pp.

Clemency Draper is an orphan, brought up in a dreadful establishment from which she is rescued by “a kind benefactor.” This sounds very old-fashioned. It is. An historical novel for girls is uncommon and. in the 1790'5, Captain Knight has chosen a period with loads of scope (in England and across the channel) for excitement matching anything today.

Into the Forest. By Rosamund Essex. Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. 128 pp.

This author is as interesting as her book. She took an M.A. at St. Hilda’s College. Oxford, was secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, editor of the children’s page of “The Church Times.” and editor of that paper from 1950 to 1960, when she joined the staff of Inter-church Aid and Refugee Service. This is her first children’s novel, a tale of danger and suspense in which five companions search for the world they feel must exist.

Hag in the Castle. By Lorna Wood. J. M. Dent and Sons. 110 pp.

Witchcraft was once high on the list of topics ensuring excitement for children and Lorna Wood is one of the few who realise it still has possibilities, even if they are hilarious. The connotations of the title and the theme should not dissuade girls from reading this imaginative tale.

Animal Ways. By George F. Mason. J. M. Dent and Sons. 58 pp.

Yet another treasury of wildlife infoirmation in the “Animals at Home” series, this is a study of animal instinct and behaviour thoughtfully prepared for the young. Some of the habits explained are quite startling. This series and this author are guarantees of good reading. How They Were Built: DAMS. By John Stewart Murphy. 32 pp.

Big dams are impressive but not always interesting to the young. Any attempt to describe everything entailed is apt to become tedious. Mr Murphy’s account is fascinating, from the very earliest dams to modern designs and modern methods, right up to the Kariba dam. Yet all this takes only 32 pages of letterpress and well-chosen sketches. The book will appeal to a wide age range. Mr Hare has a Bright Idea. By Muriel Holland. Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. 88 pp.

This is a lively story for younger children to read aloud or read alone. Mr Hare is up to tricks and lions, elephants, crocodiles, chameleons, and bats are among those involved. There is large clear type, plenty of action, and gay illustration.

Pocomoto and the Mexican Bandits. By Rex Dixon. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. 203 pp.

“Keep lookin’ at them holes in your hats and figure how three inches lower is all the space you-ve got between living and dying.” This warning to Poco and Tim is not really typical of the talk or the tale. The boys are on the trail of treasure hidden by Spaniards in the Gulf of California 400 years ago and much of the story is authentic.

Searchers of The Sea: Pioneers in Oceanography. By C. M. Daugherty. Illustrated by Don Miller. Phoenix House. 155 pp.

The literature of voyages of discovery is a captivating one, and some of toe great names enshrined in it, such as Columbus, Magellan and Cook, figure in toe early chapters of toe book under review which relates some of the salient achievements of these, navigators. It then describes in brief outline toe work of pioneers in toe field of oceanography. It considers the respective roles played in toe development of this science by Matthew Maury, Edward Forbes, Sir Charles Wyville Thomson and Alexander Agassiz. From oceanography it goes on to deal with toe allied subject of marine biology, focusing attention principally on Sir John Murray and Thomas Huxley. It devotes one chapter to Nansen’s Arctic polar journey, and another to Professor Piccard’s invention of toe bathyscaphe. Intended as it is for young people it opens up a fascinating field of study and points the way to further reading.

Little Red Rooster. By Grace Van Horn. Illustrated by Sheila Perry. AbelardSchuman. 32 pp.

Anything red catches the eye of young children, a red engine, a red balloon. So the little red rooster has a head start in assured popularity though he need not depend alone on his colour. This delightful story with lively pictures also bas a moral. He failed in his job of waking the family, and children will see that everyone should do his duty. Writer and artist are well qualified academically, but, more important, they have a warm feeling for children.