YOUNG READERS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31327, 25 March 1967, Page 4

YOUNG READERS

One man’s meat is another man’s poison, so it may seem strange to a child in New Zealand to read of deer being protected from poachers and cherished. Once past that little difficulty, there is much to appreciate in DEERFOLD, by Sheena Porter (Oxford University Press, 144 pp.). An English family move into Wales, where the parents are to be wardens at a new Youth Hostel set in a coniferous forest. The children are John, in the early teens, Hannah aged twelve and little Judith aged four. Hannah is at first highly scornful of the little cottages she sees, with no piped water or electricity and unwittingly offends Megan, a Welsh girl who lives near the hostel in just such | a cottage. However Hannah is | thoughtless rather than unkind, and after the anxiety of a search for little Judith who got lost in the forest, and the excitement of a hunt for | poachers, she is happy to agree that cottages are not so bad and the people in them are wonderful friends. A good book for girls of 9-12 years. Pony-loving poppets are always with us—some just like stories about horses and others demand serious equine information. Both types will enjoy THE PONY CLUB THROUGH SMOKE AND FIRE, by Lengstrand and Rolen (Brockhampton Press, 84 pp.). Swedish by origin, the book has 65 splendid photographs of ponies and riders to illustrate the story of an idyllic trek, lasting several days, and then the sudden terror of a forest fire. For children of seven years and upwards.